


It's Bringing My Demons Out, More Than Ever Now

by zayniekins



Series: Blood of the Five [3]
Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Blowjobs, Demon!Louis, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, More tags will be added later, Multi, Spirit!Niall, Vampire!Zayn, Zayn-centric, bits and pieces of True Blood references, werewolf!liam, wizard!harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-05-04 18:19:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 64,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5343860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zayniekins/pseuds/zayniekins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When Zayn saw the four of them, he merely smirked, his bloodied fangs gleaming in the moonlight and his beautiful hazel eyes looked deadly. A finger came up to his face and wiped the blood running down his chin. Zayn put his finger into his mouth and sucked it clean. The four supernaturals gulped. How could someone look so scary and so hot at the same time?</i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or the one in which Zayn was a vampire.</p>
<p>Well, he wasn't a vampire exactly. He was kind of a vampire, if that made any sense. He's unique, at least that's what his mentor (Maker) told him. </p>
<p>However, Zayn didn't know how unique he was. </p>
<p>And neither did the other four Supernaturals whose presence became a permanent fixture in Zayn's life. </p>
<p>But he was about to find out soon enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally an idea for a Percabeth story but I never got to doing that. Considering the fact that there are already two other fics out, I had to make the idea somewhat fit into the universe of the other two. Meaning: I had to do some tweaking to the plot. I hope you like this. The True Blood characters will be kind of out of character. I haven't mastered the art of writing them not to mention it's been a while since I watched TB so my knowledge of them is a little rusty. Just go along with whatever is in the fic. Instead of America, this is set in England, okay? We'll get to know more about Zayn's background and how Zayn came to be as well as a few twists and turns in Zayn's future with the boys.

**A few years ago...**

“You have another town to stop by before we can get out of this hell-hole and back to what we were doing with our lives,” Pamela Swynford de Beufort—commonly known as, Pam—said to her maker as they both sat in the moving car. On normal occasions, they would have just used vampire speed to get to where they wanted to go but unfortunately, due to recent events such as the Great Revelation that resulted in the existence of vampires being known to the world, they had to make appearances and ‘play nice’ to get the humans to accept the vampire community.

Her maker pursed his lips into a thin line. Getting chummy with humans was not supposed to be part of his job description as sheriff but like all the other vampires, he had to follow what was ordered by the vampire council. His blue eyes scanned the scenery that passed him, not really taking anything in (he had had years to roam the Earth, it’s nothing he hadn’t seen before) but rather thinking to the events that happened over the course of a few nights.

The towns that they visited in England had different reactions towards the revealing of vampires. Some were neutral, uncaring as long as no trouble occurred. A few were a bit wary, he could smell the fear that radiated off them and he was undeniably pleased. Others had a few rotten apples that decided to speak their mind but they had been dealt with. The interesting ones were the ones that decided to celebrate their arrival. All the gimmicks, although attention-grabbing, was really unneeded and he enjoyed watching the humans stumble over each other, trying to please him.

The car made a turn into a quaint town. Upon seeing the decorations they had set up, Pam and her maker shared a look. This was going to be one of those ‘celebrating’ towns. The car stopped in front of what was assumed as the townhouse. A crowd—the residents, no doubt— had gathered. Their chauffeur got out of the car and opened the door for them.

“Smile, Eric. They’ll warm up to you more,” Pam advised, jokingly. Her maker—Eric— sent her a wry smile.

“You and I both know that that’s not why we’re here,” he spoke lightly. The two got out of the car and they were greeted by the mayor.

As soon as the usual formalities were done, the mayor had ushered them and their entourage of a few more vampires into the townhouse where they were forced to watch performance after performance of things that had nothing to do with vampires. After that was a buffet and they served Tru Blood. Eric eyed the bottles with distaste. They were artificially flavoured and could not compare to the richness of true human’s—or any other Supernatural creature’s— blood.

“I’m going to get a drink,” Eric said to Pam, lowly. Thankfully, his progeny understood what her maker was implying and nodded. “Keep them busy.”

The tall blond casually walked out of the townhouse and started down a path, hoping to come across a human who he could glamour and suck enough blood out to fulfill his hunger.

“That’s what you get for being a vampire slut, Malik!” a brash voice could be heard over the silence of the night. Curious, Eric stalked over to the source as quietly as he could which was easy because he was a vampire. The voices that were yelling at a certain ‘Malik’ led Eric to an area near the woods. He hid under the shadows that were provided by the trees and watched the scene unfold in front of him.

A young boy—or a teen— was curled up on the ground in pain. He had bruises all over his body, a sign that the three tall kids towering over him had probably beaten him up. Normally, Eric didn’t care for these trivial matters. Human casualties meant nothing to him. He was a vampire, a heartless and cruel one at that. However, there was something about that teen that drew him in.

“Leave,” the teen said, gritting his teeth. He clutched his abdomen fiercely. “Leave before I do something I regret.” One of the kids, the leader perhaps, leaned down and gave him a mocking grin.

“What?” he asked, pretending as if he didn’t hear what the teen said. “Did the vampire wannabe say something?” His two friends laughed, obviously getting a kick out of the situation. Eric wasn’t going to intervene. He didn’t have much of a heart. He didn’t care.

The leader kept egging the teen on, throwing taunts and jeers at him. Eric kept his focus on the curled up teen as he waited for what his next action would be. As the taunts got more and more annoying, Eric decided that maybe the teen had talked a big game. He was obviously staying curled on the ground. With the amount of bruises on his body, Eric doubted that the kid could even do anything against his attackers. He was about to leave when a sudden flash of movement caught his eye.

The teen had shot up like a bullet and had wrapped a hand around the leader’s neck before lifting him off the ground. The teen’s hazel-coloured eyes were filled with hatred and Eric noted that the bruises on his skin were slowly healing. The two minions of the leader were rooted to the spot in fear.

“I told you to leave before I did something I regret,” the teen hissed. All of a sudden, a pair of fangs dropped from the teen’s upper gum, causing Eric to tilt his head in interest.

_A vampire?_ He wondered, feeling intrigued.

The leader was scrambling to get away, evident fear in his eyes and he looked close to crying. “P-please, spare me. Let me go. Please!” The leader kept pleading and pleading and pleading. If Eric was the teen, he would’ve just drained the leader and his cronies to get some peace of mind. The blond vampire watched as the teen seemed to ponder the leader’s begging.

“Fine,” the teen said, contempt shown clear in his tone. His eyes flashed dangerously and Eric recognized it as the telltale signs of a vampire about to glamour someone. “Tell this to no one and leave me alone. You were just out for a smoke and you’ll return to your houses like usual.”

The three kids scrammed as if the devil was on their tails. Eric watched as the teen let out a sigh and went to leave. It was time to make his presence known.

“You shouldn’t have let them run away,” Eric said, startling the teen. He whipped around and narrowed his eyes at Eric. The blond vampire moved out of the shadows so that the teen could view him better. “You should have obliterated them or drained them.”

The teen frowned, “I don’t need to give the townsfolk a legitimate reason to throw me out of town. They already hate me enough.” The blond vampire found this piece of information interesting.

Eric shrugged, “Well, I’m impressed. I didn’t think I’d see a vampire in one of these towns.”

“I’m not a vampire,” the teen protested. He had a scowl on his face as he said that. “I can’t be.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, “Then what are you? How do you explain your _extraordinary_ talents?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “You might think I’m a vampire but I don’t exactly fit the whole package.” The teen seemed like he was going to elaborate but he stopped himself. “Why am I even talking to you? You’re one of the vampires that came to visit, a complete and total stranger to me. I can’t trust you.”

Eric watched the teen turn to leave but he wasn’t done with their conversation yet. Nobody walked away from Eric Northman without a pardon that easily. They either didn’t or died trying. He used his vampire speed to appear in front of the teen, causing him to let out a startled gasp. “You will come with me,” he ordered.

The teen sent him a challenging look. “And why should I?”

Eric gave him an easy-going smile. “Wouldn’t you like to get out of this small town that hates you and has nothing to offer? If you come with me, I’ll make you my progeny and teach you my vampire ways.” Eric was surprised at his own generosity. He would never deal with the likes of a stray vampire but his mouth seemed to have a mind of its own at the moment.

“And if I don’t?”

“You live your life in this little town, getting constant beatings and hate. If you’re lucky, they’ll put a stake through your heart.” The teen seemed to consider this carefully before he agreed. Honestly, Eric knew that it did not take much to sway him.

“All right, I’ll go with you,” he said. “This is only because you seem like the only option I can take that doesn’t involve me dying soon.”

Eric rolled his eyes, “With the way you handled things, it seems to me like you could just glamour anyone that tries to mess with you.”

The teen shook his head, “My glamour doesn’t last long and I have a hunch that the townsfolk are already planning my funeral.”

“Sounds a bit dramatic, little one,” Eric said, grabbing the teen’s arm and pulling him along as he started to walk. His legs were longer than the teen's, taking bigger and wider steps while the teen lagged behind. Eric couldn’t have that. “I’m pretty sure a face like yours is very likable.”

The teen scoffed. “That’s unlikely. There’s a lot that happened that made them hate me.”

“It couldn’t have been that bad, little one,” Eric said, the pet name being used to rile up the teen and get a name without him having to ask for it. Only, he hadn’t caught on yet. “I had to watch my family die.”

“Oh,” the teen spoke, surprised. “Well, I’m sorry to hear that.”

Eric brushed it off. “No need to be sorry, little one. The only sorry ones are the people that decided to cross paths with me as enemies.”

“That’s unfortunate,” the teen blanched. “And why do you keep calling me little one? I have a name, you know.”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?” Eric teased. “You are quite small for your age and those kids back there towered over you. If it weren’t for your vampire strength, they would have snapped you like a twig, little one.”

“My name’s Zayn,” the teen ground out. “And I’m not that weak.”

“Whatever you say,” Eric said, maneuvering them to the townhouse where the car awaited them. Everyone had gathered outside and that meant that the festivities were over. The blond vampire spotted his progeny putting up a pleasant façade and pretending to be polite to the mayor when all he knew that she wanted to do was rip his throat out.

If this wasn’t such a diplomatic mission, Eric would have done just that.

“It was a pleasure to be here but we really must go,” Eric interrupted whatever the mayor was saying. Pam sent him a grateful look before getting into the car along with their entourage who got into their respective cars. The mayor quickly quieted down and his gaze wondered to Zayn who was standing near Eric.

“Ah, I see you’ve met Zayn,” Eric raised an eyebrow at the tone of the mayor’s voice. It wasn’t exactly nice. “I hope he hasn’t been any trouble to you. God knows what he and his vampire obsession have probably done to you.”

“He’s been great company actually,” Eric said, countering the mayor’s accusations. He felt protective all of a sudden, a feeling that he only felt for his progeny actually. “I’ll be taking him with me. “

The mayor’s eyes bulged out, “What?”

“I do not repeat myself twice,” Eric said, gravely. Ignoring the mayor, he ushered Zayn into the car before getting in himself. “If I cared more, I would have complimented your efforts to entertain us. However, I do not so bidding you a goodbye is as polite as I can be.” With that, the blond vampire closed the door and the car started to move, leaving the town behind.

The blond vampire sighed roughly, feeling liberated at last. Looking over at the teen, Eric watched as Zayn’s eyes flickered to Pam cautiously. The seats in the car were the face to face kind and the teen sat in front of him and Pam. Zayn looked really curious. Time for introductions.

“Zayn,” he said, causing the teen’s eyes to snap over to him. “This is Pam, my progeny. Pam, this is Zayn, my adoptive progeny.”

Pam eyed the teen with little interest. “Hi,” she said in a dry tone before inspecting her nails. “When you said you went out for a drink, I didn’t think that you’d bring back a fangbanger and a pretty one at that.”

Zayn’s eyebrows furrowed, “I’m not a fangbanger.” Pam tilted her head to the side as she looked at him. Eric knew what she was doing. This was her way of saying hello. Insult that person and if they keep fighting, they probably are worth keeping around. If they ignore her, they’re either a goody two-shoes or not worth it.

“Really?” she asked rhetorically. “You sure look like the type.” Her hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Zayn’s, pulling him out of his seat in front of her. “I bet you taste real nice too,” she commented, bending forward so that her face barely an inch from Zayn’s.

Zayn went on the defensive, his fangs dropping on reflex and his free hand pushing off Pam’s with so much force that she slammed into the cushion of her seat with a surprised look on her face. He slumped back into his seat and Eric looked at him with more interest than before. It took a lot to make Pam and him surprised and Zayn just did that.

How did a 17 year-old boy who claimed that he wasn’t ‘a vampire that fit the whole package’ have so much strength to push a vampire older than him away? Either Pam was caught off guard or this teen had something in him.

“You’re a vampire,” Pam’s sentence was more of a statement than a question.

“I’m not,” Zayn said, denying her statement. “I’m not a vampire and I probably will never be.”

“Well, _sugar_ , unless there’s another supernatural being with fangs like ours, I’m pretty sure you’re a vampire,” Pam remarked.

“What makes you think that you aren’t a vampire?” Eric asked. There must be reasons as to why he’s denying it, right?

Zayn looked hesitant to share and Eric spoke up to rectify that.

“I’ll be your mentor or in vampire terms, your maker, Zayn,” he said. “I need to know what I’ll be taking care of.”

“Can you tell me things that a vampire should or should not be able to do?” Zayn asked.  Eric sighed internally. He was hoping that they would have gotten straight to the point but never mind.

 “We have fangs, which is what you have too. We roam at night or after sundown, which is also what you have done. We are not immune to sunlight and we’ll get burnt so bad that we could disintegrate if we don’t get out of there fast enough. We-“

“I don’t,” Zayn spoke up softly. Eric stopped talking.

“You don’t what?”

“I don’t disintegrate in the sunlight,” Zayn said. “I’ve tested that. It was what made me think that I’m not a vampire. The only worst thing that happened to me was getting an irritating rash that stayed for days. Kind of like a sunburn but far more painful. It felt like my blood was constantly boiling. But I didn’t disintegrate.”

“How long did you stay in the sun?” Eric asked.

“More than 6 hours,” Zayn answered. Wow. By normal standards, even the oldest of vampires couldn’t last that long. Normally, within the first hour, if not aided by drinking fairy blood, vampires would disintegrate. But, Zayn didn’t. What was he?

“Anything else I should know?” Eric questioned him.

“I’m allergic to garlic. Like, I can smell it within a ten-feet radius of me. Is that a vampire thing?” Pam scoffed.

“That’s a myth,” she said, dismissing it. “You must have a really sensitive nose then.”

“That’s all I guess,” Zayn said, sinking into his seat. “Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Since you’re my adoptive progeny, I won’t have the same control over you as I do over Pam. I can't use a Maker's command on you but I want to keep that under wraps so if I order you to do something in public with other vampires around, go with it. However, I do want to know where you are at all times and be able to sense you. Therefore, we must drink each other’s blood so that a blood link may be formed,” Eric replied. Zayn nodded, sitting up in his seat again.

Zayn watched as Eric dropped his fangs and proceeded to bite his own wrist. The older vampire pulled back and a stream of darkly- coloured blood flowed down his arm. He offered his wrist to Zayn and the teen knew what to do. He had to drink it. Closing his eyes, he latched onto the wound and started to suck. After a few pulls, he knew that he should let go but it was just too addictive.

A hand pushed him back and he heard a chuckle. “My, my, what a little blood whore you are,” Pam said, smirking slightly. “If you weren’t a fangbanger before, you might be a fangbanger now. Vampire blood is addicting and an aphrodisiac. I wouldn't mind seeing you on your knees in front of-”

"Ehem," Eric eyed his progeny and sent her a warning glance.

Zayn’s cheeks coloured slightly. He was embarrassed about his lack of control over himself. Eric rolled his eyes at Pam who shrugged innocently and turned his attention back on Zayn.

“Your turn,” he said, prompting Zayn to bite his wrist and offer it to Eric. Zayn did just that. However, as soon as Eric latched on and started to drink, he immediately pulled back and rolled down one of the car windows. He ducked his head out and started to retch violently. Pam sent Zayn a glare before looking at her maker with a worried face.

Eric continued retching for a few more moments before he finally stopped. He sunk back onto his seat, tiredly. “What was that?” Pam asked, sounding slightly concerned.

“Your blood is undrinkable,” Eric said to Zayn, looking slightly miffed. “It didn’t taste bad, it was just undrinkable. I felt like I was drinking the sweetest of nectar one minute but the second it went down my throat, it felt poisonous.”

“Are you all right?” Pam asked him. Eric coughed a couple of times and Pam rubbed his back.

“I’m fine,” Eric brushed Pam off, his voice slightly hoarse. “We need to get you checked with the doctor when we get to our home.”

Zayn nodded, feeling fidgety about the whole situation that had happened.

“You need to get checked too,” Pam said to Eric. Speaking of doctors, Zayn just remembered something he needed to tell them.

“Um, I have these monthly things,” he said slowly as if afraid of offending them. “They come once every few months. I-“

“Like a human period?” Pam asked, bluntly. Zayn shook his head.

“No, like I get these urges-“

“Oh, sugar, those are called boners. You’re perfectly normal,” Pam interrupted again. Zayn frowned.

“No, it’s not that. I can survive mostly on animal blood,” Pam made a look of disgust at the mention of animal blood.” But once every three months, I would have this phase where I lose my mind and end up killing humans for their blood. I can’t control myself during those times and I don’t understand why.”

“It’s probably because you’ve been drinking animal blood for so long,” Eric said. “We’ll check with the doctor about this.”

“You know, maybe I was right for once. These urges could possibly be because he is a fangbanger and didn't have a supply of vampire blood,” she said, nonchalant. Eric groaned and Zayn scowled. There was that annoying word again.

“Ignore Pam,” he said. “She’s just pissed that someone managed to make her warm up to them that fast.”

Zayn doubted that but okay. He’ll take what he can get. He'll warm up to Pam, maybe and be a good progeny for Eric. This was his new family now. He will not fail them like he had failed his other family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is terribly unedited and unrevised. Hope you don't mind Pam. The excessive use of the word 'fangbanger' was so unneeded. It actually means a human that is addicted to the taste of vampire blood and has sex with them as well, if I'm not mistaken. Pam just likes to use it as an insult no matter the context. So, how did you like the first chapter so far? Tell me in the comments below and press that kudos button.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doctor helps to enlighten Zayn's situation and Pam teaches him a few things about the vampire world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back again. I hope you will enjoy this chapter. Instead of the USA, Fangtasia will be located in England. The boys won't come in until the next chapter but I hope you enjoy this one anyway. Some more bonding between our trio of vampires. This is unedited so forgive me for the mistakes I made. Enjoy!

**Still a few years ago...**

 

“The doctor’s here, Eric,” Pam said, alerting her maker and Zayn from their position near the bar in Fangtasia. Fangtasia was a local bar owned by Eric. It had just opened recently, after the Great Revelation had happened. It has a wide open plan with many tables and a few small stages for vampire dancers. The walls were blood red, a homage to blood. The bar was stocked with all sorts of alcoholic beverages. It was Eric and Pam’s pride and joy.

Eric looked up, snapped out of his thoughts by Pam’s announcement. He was just going over the information Zayn had told him. Everything about Zayn just screamed abnormal but maybe the doctor knew a few things that he did not. “Let her in.”

Pam opened the door and in walked an old-aged woman with a white bag in her hands. Her hair was slowly graying, she had wrinkles on her face and was quite short in stature. However, despite the signs that she was aging, she walked with determination and courage despite being in the presence of vampires. Well, two vampires and an enigma of a vampire.

“Mr. Northman, it’s been quite a while,” she said in a businesslike tone. Eric stood up straight from where he was leaned against the bar and tipped his head down in acknowledgement to her.

“Indeed it has, Doctor Ludwig,” he replied, politely. While others would be shaking on the spot when facing the Eric Northman, Doctor Ludwig would not even bat an eyelash at him. She had dealt with a lot of scary creatures and became immune to their attempt at inducing fear.

“What seems to be the problem?” she asked, putting her bag on one of the tables. Eric smiled, she went straight to the point which was something he deeply appreciated.

“Can you take a look at my new progeny, Zayn?” he gestured for Zayn to approach the doctor. “He seems to have a few _problems_ that we are hoping you could help us out with.”

Zayn almost snorted at Eric’s choice of words. It was an understatement. Nevertheless, he moved closer to the doctor. She did not seem scary but she had that aura that she could tear you apart if she wanted to. Zayn was determined to stay on her good side.

“A new progeny, sheriff? Where’d you find this one?” Doctor Ludwig mused as she took Zayn in . “Another poor sap eh? A bit younger than what I usually see you feeding on.”

“Don’t you know it,” Pam interjected.

Eric chuckled. “The boy was willing to follow me though I did not drink his blood.”

The doctor blinked, surprised. “That’s a first. “ Eric nodded.

“Between you and me, his blood is what we have a problem with,” Eric explained to her. He knew that he could trust the doctor. She had a strict confidentiality policy. “He can do some things that vampires can’t and his blood is intolerable to drink.”

The doctor seemed to think this over. Interesting. She opened the bag and took out a syringe. She took Zayn’s arm and stuck the needle in his vein. After drawing out an acceptable amount of blood, she took the needle out. Zayn didn’t need a bandage or anything to stop the blood. His arm just started healing itself as healing easily was a vampiric trait.

“He heals normally,” she said, observing the way Zayn’s arm looked good as new.  Doctor Ludwig put on a pair of glasses and examined Zayn’s blood. Since she was a healer, she had the ability to determine traits in a blood sample and all those other medical things without actually needing the equipment.

Doctor Ludwig pursed her lips as she diagnosed Zayn’s blood. She hummed when she understood what the problem was. “Zayn here,” she said, garnering the trio’s attention. “—is half human and half vampire.”

“What?” Pam questioned, shocked. “Halflings can exist?”

Doctor Ludwig shrugged. “In my experience, I have never met a Halfling before. Vampires have never been known to breed sexually. Zayn is a first. An anomaly of sorts.”

“What does being a Halfling entail?” Eric asked. He regarded his new progeny with new interest.

“I am assuming that you’ve adopted this one and are not his real maker?” Eric nodded his confirmation. “Well, from looking at the blood, there are a few things that I can figure out and a few things that I cannot.”

“Like?” Zayn inquired curiously. This was all new for him.

“Zayn, when did the blood thirst start?” Doctor Ludwig asked. Zayn pondered the question for a while as he tried to remember.

“When I was ten or something,” he said, remembering the incident that started it all. “I started getting a real hunger for blood and almost drained my father. He managed to give me animal blood in the nick of time.”

Zayn also remembered the incident that caused him to be an outcast. After his father (a human, Zayn never knew his mother though) tracked how often these occurrences happened, he had kept Zayn chained in the basement during these times, feeding him animal blood to satisfy his urges. However, on one summer night that was close to one of those times, Zayn decided to go to a sleepover at a friend’s house. He almost drained the poor kid and was branded a vampire wannabe from then on.

“So your father was a human?” Eric asked. Zayn nodded.

“What about mommy dearest?” Pam drawled out. Zayn shrugged.

“I didn’t know her. My father said she dropped me off as soon as I was born,” he answered.

“Your mother must have been one tough cookie. We’ll just assume that she is a vampire because you had to get the genes from somewhere,” Doctor Ludwig said. “Now, on to the serious stuff. My guess is that from when he was born to turning ten years old, Zayn was a full human. His vampire blood blended in with his human blood and had become dormant.

“However, at ten years old, something triggered his vampire blood to slowly become active. Therefore, he started to show his vampiric traits. There are two layers of different red blood cells. My guess is that some of your human red blood cells start to change into vampire ones. They run together in your system and this may be the reason why your blood is intolerable. If someone drank your blood and kept it in their system for more than an hour, their internal system could have been damaged.”

Eric winced at the information. Luckily, his body automatically exterminated the threat. Meanwhile, Zayn took note of this. No more sharing blood with anyone then.

“But why?” Pam asked. “Humans can drink vampire blood and vampires can drink human blood. What’s the big deal about mixing them together?”

Doctor Ludwig shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m not a vampire biologist.”

“How long will this transformation take?” Eric asked. Again, Doctor Ludwig shrugged.

“It’s been seven years already and he hasn’t fully changed. I don’t know whether this change is ongoing or if this is how it permanently will be.”

“What about monthly urges of bloodlust I get?” Zayn asked. "I become crazed and could go on a rampage."

“Well, since your vampire side has been suppressed for a decade, my assumption is that your hunger for blood has also been suppressed. Therefore, they accumulate to occur simultaneously at a few time periods and you feel immensely hungry instead of a usual craving for blood that vampires have.”

Zayn nodded. That made sense.

“It also is possible for you to have more strength or better abilities than the usual vampire. Your blood has no bounds, Zayn. The vampire side can keep pushing the human side as long as there is something to push. It is volatile yet tame. Unlimited yet limited,” Doctor Ludwig told them. “Very unique.”

“Did we mention that he can walk in the sunlight?” Eric brought up. He almost forgot about it. “I’m guessing that his human side has intervened and allowed him this luxury?” Doctor Ludwig nodded. “Is there any way to make this trait accessible for vampires?”

The doctor shrugged. “I’ll take the sample back to my lab and run a few tests. Maybe there is a distinct trait that human bloods have and vampire blood does not have.”

“Other than the trait to be weak,” Pam commented, examining her nails nonchalantly. The doctor was unperturbed by her attempt at human mockery. It was Pam. It was expected. The doctor started to pack up her stuff.

“I think my work here is done. If you need anything else, simply call me. I’ll ring you if I find anything interesting,” she said. “In the mean time, keep Zayn on low profile. You never know who might find him interesting and try to use him as a test subject.”

Eric nodded, already setting up a plan on how to handle this situation. He could name a few vampires that would be interested in his new progeny and he would make sure that they would never know what Zayn really was. Not until he wanted them to know. Zayn could potentially be his secret weapon, a secret weapon that was out in the open. Genius!

Without waiting for a goodbye, Doctor Ludwig walked out of Fangtasia. Once the doctor was gone, Pam turned to Zayn, an amused glint in her eyes.

“Well aren’t you special?” she asked rhetorically. Zayn ignored her statement and avoided her eyes. He wasn’t special. He was a freak. Not just to one world but to two. That was like being a double freak. Pam noted the sudden change in Zayn’s demeanor. The way the teen tried to curl in on himself from his spot near the table Doctor Ludwig had used.

Despite being the coldhearted bitch she was known as, Pam felt her heart slightly (just a bit. A tiny bit. Do not speak of it.) break for him. She did not like the feelings that this teen was making her experience. She only experienced them with her maker and that was on rare occasions. This was not all right.

“Why so glum, sugar?” she asked, playing it cool to give the illusion that she did not care. “Take it in stride. It’s what makes you powerful. You’d be best not to forget that.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, feeling slightly amused. He had never seen his progeny try to cheer someone else up even if the method was unlikely to work. If she softened the tone a bit, maybe her words could have passed off as advice. “Have you gone soft, Pam?” he teased. Pam gave him a disgruntled look, clearly annoyed at him. “Maybe you should be his maker, what with the good advice you’re giving him.”

Pam scowled, “No, he is your problem so you deal with him.” She sauntered off to do her work. Eric let his gaze linger on her before facing Zayn who looked so lost, standing there with his hands clasped in front of him.

“Pam gives you tough love,” he stated making Zayn roll his eyes with how obvious that was. “You’ll grow to love her.”

Zayn scoffed, “I doubt that.” Eric gave him an easygoing grin.

“Vampire siblings love each other just like human siblings do,” he said. “Only, we don’t see anything wrong with having incestuous sex with one another.”

Zayn blanched, “You have sex with your siblings?”

Eric nodded, ruefully. “Quite a couple of times actually. You could say that I was very happy to see them.”

Zayn wrinkled his nose at that, “That’s gross.” He didn’t feel comfortable with the prospect that he might have sex with Pam anytime soon.

Eric took no offense to his statement. “Vampires are very sexual beings. We don’t only have sex with siblings, we sometimes have sex with our maker, especially when the vampire is a newborn. Over time, we grow to respect our makers and see them more as maternal or paternal figures instead of sex partners.”

“So, are we gonna—“ Zayn cut off abruptly, his cheeks reddening.

The blonde vampire gave Zayn a smirk. “I wouldn’t be opposed to it.” By that admission, Zayn’s cheeks turned even redder. “However, I do know that you’re a virgin and Pam and I will not engage in any sexual activities with you unless you want to.”

Zayn felt like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole. This was immensely embarrassing! His own maker can tell that he was a virgin.

“You might be blushing and shy now but once you get a taste of sex, you become an addict,” Eric commented on Zayn’s red face. “Besides, it’s the quiet ones that are a little freaky.” He winked at Zayn, enjoying how uncomfortable the teen was getting. Zayn had a lot to learn.

“It’s almost sunrise,” Eric said, looking at the clock on the wall. “Pam and I need to die for the day. I don’t know what clock you run on. Seeing as you won’t be harmed by sunlight anyway, feel free to sleep on the couch. After the night you’ve had, it’s a miracle that you’re still standing.”

Zayn flushed when those words could be mistaken as an innuendo. Eric let out a laugh as he understood his progeny’s line of thought.

“What a dirty mind you have,” he chuckled, eyes filled with mirth. This Halfling was filling him with more emotion than he would usually feel. He wasn’t ever this comfortable with anyone other than Pam, his maker or his vampire siblings. This teen could have him wrapped around his little finger in no time. And Eric Northman feared that.

“If you get too lonely, you can share one of our coffins,” Eric offered with a wink. He still had time to figure out his progeny, to find out his strengths and limitations. To teach him about the vampire world and customs. Luckily, all of those things could be done tomorrow night. The best part was that he didn’t even need to do them. He could just put all of the work on Pam.

Oh how he loved being a maker.

…

True to his plans, Eric piled up all the work of getting Zayn educated onto his progeny. Pam wanted to protest and scream but as soon as Eric promised to buy the new line of clothes she wanted, she accepted the workload graciously. While Pam and Zayn were occupied, Eric would focus on setting up more preparations for the bar. His bar wasn’t going to be some mediocre human-like bar. He wanted it to be elite.

Zayn had spent the day sleeping on the couch in the office. His mind was tired from all the computing it had to do. Too many information had to be stored in his head so the sleep he got was pretty much welcomed with open arms. He woke up some time in the early night when Pam dropped a bunch of books onto him and that jolted him awake.

“Get up, sleepyhead,” Pam said, uncaring if Zayn was still drowsy or if he had drool on his face. “We need to get to work.” Zayn slowly sat up, pushing the books to the side. He wanted to continue sleeping but the look on Pam’s face said that she would murder him before he had the chance to go into dreamland.

Pam leaned her hip against the desk Eric had in his office. Her arms were crossed and she waited until Zayn was a little awake before starting the lecture. Eric’s office wasn’t too businesslike. It was quite impersonal and empty. Zayn barely got his bearings together before Pam listed off the things he needed to know.

“Eric wants you to learn the proper way to act in public. He wants you to know a bit of how things work around here. He also wants you to be careful with your words and how you phrase things,” Zayn yawned tiredly. His mind barely caught all of that. Pam glared at him.

“Pay attention,” she snapped, miffed. “I am not your babysitter or your tutor. Learn to keep up.” Zayn nodded, trying his best to get his mind alert.

“In public, you may address Eric as one of two things; master or sheriff,” Pam started off. “He is a respectable vampire, one of the strongest and the oldest. His reputation is important. Calling him by his name would be considered rude or incredibly ballsy. Though I would not advise it and that’s coming from me. If you are in a private place, then you can call him Eric.”

Zayn hummed in understanding. Pam continued.

“If Eric commands you to do something, you should do it, especially when we are in a public setting. He wants to keep you on low profile. The general vampire public would know you as his new progeny. Don’t do anything to make them question that, otherwise we will be in huge shit. Any questions you have, ask them in private unless it is an emergency.”

“Okay,” Zayn said, keeping that in mind.

“As for the vampire hierarchy, every area that has a population of vampires will have a vampire ruler. Here, we have a queen. Under the queen are sheriffs that govern over areas. Eric is a sheriff. There will be times where he has to do his rounds. The sheriffs have sworn fealty to the queen. They have to do whatever she asks unless they want to challenge her for the crown. Eric is much older than the queen. He could take her down in a duel but he isn’t interested in the crown. Quite unfortunate.

“Anyway, the point is, if the queen becomes interested in you, Eric will have to hand you over if she asks,” Pam explained, moving so that she could sit on the desk. She made a face of contempt. “I am not a fan of the queen. She is rather spoiled. Do not become a new plaything in her eyes. She isn’t good at taking care of toys.”

Pam would not have to worry about that. Being the queen’s new plaything wasn’t on Zayn’s to-do list.

“There is also an authority of vampires. They make sure peace is kept between vampires and that our relations with humans are not severed. They enforce the laws around here. Do not act weird around them or be rude to them. They can murder you and still find laws to blame their actions on.”

The vampire world sounded savage to Zayn. He wasn’t particularly fond of the queen and the vampire authority. But he would have to learn to live with it. There was nothing else he could do.

Pam got up from her perch on the deck and gestured for him to do the same. She led him outside of the office and back into the bar.

“While you’re here, Eric has assigned you a job,” Pam said. “You have to help the bartender man the bar and also be the host in Eric’s absence. There’s a throne on a dais out there.” She gestured to said objects. The throne was fit for a king and settled on a blood red dais.

“This is where Eric sits and graces the public with his appearance. He doesn’t normally linger on the dance floor but Eric was hoping that your good looks could be an advantage here. You do know how to seduce and play hard to get right?”

The teen nodded. Pam smiled. “Great. You know what to do. Entertaining the patrons should be easy for you.” Zayn wasn’t happy with that idea. He felt like he was being used for his good looks.

The air suddenly became tense as Pam looked at Zayn, straight in the eyes. “Let me just tell you that Eric is not a gentle vampire,” she warned him. “He is ruthless and cutthroat. Do not be surprised if he is very rough with other vampires, especially ones that he despises. Eric has a reputation built on this. He was a Viking once. They aren’t fluffy clouds of rainbow shit that you want to hug.”

Zayn gulped at that. Hopefully, he would not have to see Eric become the ruthless vampire he was claimed to be. Unfortunately, the odds told him that his wish was very unlikely. Zayn would have to see it sooner or later.

“Also, we’re gonna teach you a couple of tricks so that you aren’t such a weak vampire. If you have great strength but no knowledge of how to use it, you’re better off weak. Eric will expect you to do some dirty work for him. If you get into deep shit, Eric can deal with it for you. However, there are some things that even he cannot get you out of. So, word of advice, don’t tempt fate by getting into trouble.”

If he could, Zayn would have backed out of this deal. Unfortunately, he was in too deep. There was no getting out. Zayn was now a progeny of Eric Northman. They would expect him to mirror the attitude of his maker, to be as ruthless as Eric was. But Zayn was just Zayn. A weird combination of human and vampire. He wasn't a tough Viking like Eric or a natural bitch like Pam. There wasn't anything that he could bring to the table. Could he make this work?

Well, he would have to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too much information to take in, eh? Pam should really go easy on Zayn. He's still a fragile little child.
> 
> If you liked the chapter (though I think it was horrible aha), comment down below or give me a kudos. I would love your feedback. Who's excited for Zaynie to meet the others?


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys and Zayn meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys should thank Zayn because his Olaf dubsmash was so adorable and I just had to update. Funny story though: I was about to sleep and had just posted on ig about going to sleep but immediately after, Zayn posted the video on Twitter. I swear the boy doesn't want me to sleep (but i forgive him because he is cute and so is his unicorn nose). This chapter is unedited but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway. If you see any mistakes, ignore them. I will come back later to rectify them. Anyway, on to reading!

**Present day...**

 

“That’s it, lads,” Liam said, tossing the empty box over his shoulder. “We are officially moved in!” The werewolf turned from his position in front of the bookcase to see his three other boyfriends all sprawled across the couch, each of them on their respective smartphones. The werewolf frowned, there were a lot of other boxes around them apparently. Everyone had been given a task to unpack at least a few.

Liam had assumed by the silence in the room while he was unpacking that the others had finished their part. It seemed that he was the only one who actually did something. The alpha frowned and cleared his throat. None of the boys looked up from their phones, each looking at the electronic screen in concentration.

The werewolf tried again, “Ehem?”

Niall was the first one to remember Liam’s presence. He almost jumped when he realized that he hadn’t done his share. Scrambling to sit up from his seat on the couch, he pretended to dust himself off. “What was that, Li?” the spirit asked, faintly remembering Liam saying something.

“We’re officially moved in,” Liam repeated, monotonously. “At least I thought we were but it seems that you lot haven’t even done your parts yet.”

Niall let out a nervous chuckle. “What do you mean?” he asked, scratching the back of his neck as he subtly kicked a sealed box to hide it under the table. When Liam gave him a deadpanned look, Niall knew that he was caught. However, he didn’t want to be the only one in trouble.

Niall nudged the person beside him who happened to be Louis. Louis glared at the spirit because he had interrupted whatever the demon was doing. Niall gestured with one of his hands for Louis to look in front of him. He did and then he saw Liam’s frustrated expression.

“Oh, hi, Li,” he said, apprehensively. Without removing his eyes from the werewolf, Louis nudged Harry in the arm. Startled, Harry accidentally dropped his phone onto his face.

“Ow!” he yelped, moving the phone out of his face and frowning at Louis. “What was that for?” When both Louis and Niall motioned to their other boyfriend, Harry finally noted Liam’s presence. “Oh, hey, Li,” he said, before he went back to whatever he was doing on his phone. Liam sighed.

The werewolf took Harry’s phone out of his hands and the witch protested. “I was doing research on that,” he said, making grabby hands at his phone that was in Liam’s grasp. The werewolf proceeded to take Niall’s and Louis’ phones too which each earned him a groan and whine. Harry, on the other hand, was satisfied that he wasn’t the only one who was going to be punished.

All their objections fell on deaf ears which was ironic because a werewolf had a great sense of hearing. The werewolf was adamant. “No one is getting their phone back until they complete their tasks,” he commanded strictly. The other three complied, knowing that they would never get their phones from him otherwise.

After a few hours, everything was settled and Liam returned the phones to their respective owners. The four supernaturals lay down on their shared bed together, cuddling after all the hard work. This was their first house that they had bought together. They had been in a relationship for four years and Liam, being a werewolf, wanted them to separate from their families and form a pack of their own.

It was kind of weird, a werewolf, a spirit, a demon and a witch becoming members of a pack together. However, they did not care. Having a four-way relationship was already weird. Why not just add this into the mix? So they packed up and left after getting permission from their families. Now, here they were, settled in together.

“We should celebrate,” Louis suggested suddenly, breaking the silence in the room. He moved his hand from its position of playing with Harry’s hair and grabbed his phone to search up pubs online. Harry whined in protest and nudged his head to Louis’ arm. The demon removed his hand from its position on Liam’s chest and resumed playing with Harry’s curls.

“Should we really?” Liam asked, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. “I’m quite tired.”

“Don’t be a buzzkill, Li,” Niall frowned. He focused on Louis. “Found any good pubs yet, Lou?”

Louis nodded, “Yeah, found one called Fangtasia. It’s a vampire bar but they let other supernaturals in as long as we don’t cause trouble. It seems pretty lit from the online reviews. We should go there tonight.”

“Yay!” Harry cheered. “I can try on my new clothes I bought from WitchBay.”

Louis snorted, “You mean those secondhand crap with sequins and shit?” Harry poked his stomach.

“Not nice,” he commented. “They look pretty to me.”

Niall scoffed, “Don’t wear them tonight, Harry. Not if we’re looking to pull anyone in.” The other three stared at him and Niall backtracked his words. “I mean, if you want to dance or stuff.”

Liam looked deep in thought. “You feel it too, Nialler?” he asked. When Niall raised an eyebrow for him to elaborate, the werewolf explained, “ I have this empty feeling in my chest. It’s as if we’re missing something else to our group.”

Louis clapped his hands, “Thank God, I‘m not the only one who feels that way. I thought I was becoming a needy slut or something.”

Niall laughed, “You kind of are one, Lou.” He was referring to the list of ex-lovers Louis had before he became their boyfriend. Their Louis was a catch, his natural good looks and that dark demon aura pulled in a lot of attention. Louis reached over Liam and slapped Niall in the face. The blond yelped in pain.

“Seriously, Lou?” he asked, rubbing his face. “Did you have to do that?”

Louis rolled his eyes, “You weren’t complaining when I did that last night with my cock instead.” Niall flushed as he remembered their little activities last night.

“Touche.”

“Are we really going to find the last piece of our puzzle at a vampire bar?” Harry asked. “I thought it should be in a more romantic setting.” Louis snorted.

“You make it sound like fucking poetry, Haz,” he commented. “’last piece of our puzzle’ and shit.”

Liam narrowed his eyes at Louis. “Be nice,” he warned. He moved his attention on Haz, “Well, if we feel like there’s someone at the bar for us, then we might find our other boyfriend then. Anything could happen.”

On that statement, the boys agreed to go out that night. They would try out that Fangtasia bar and see how everything went. If they were lucky, they would find their missing ‘puzzle piece’ as Harry had said.

…

“What about that one?” Ant asked, making a couple of shots before passing them to the waiting patron. He dried his hands on a towel and turned to Zayn.  Zayn shrugged.

“The guy with the blue tie?” he asked for clarity, his eyes looking over at the human nerd on the other side of the room who was eyeing Zayn a couple of times in the past hour. Ant nodded and the half-vampire blanched. “Not my type at all. “

Ant frowned, “He seems interested.” Zayn scowled.

“Well I’m not,” he turned around and grabbed a cold beer for a patron of the bar. “I’m looking for a good shag and he doesn’t fit the bill.”

Ant looked at him sympathetically as he attended a few other patrons. “Northman giving you a hard time?”

Zayn nodded, “Yeah, it’s like he doesn’t notice that I’m not the same kid I was three years ago. I’m not naïve anymore but he still treats me like a child.” It had been three years since Zayn became a progeny of Eric Northman. Three years since he had been thrust into the vampire world and helped out at Fangtasia. A lot had changed in three years.

For starters, Zayn had lost most of his baby fat. With the amount of work he had put in, he became leaner and gained a bit of muscle. His cheeks were thinner, emphasizing his high cheekbones. He could grow a bit of scruff though he liked to shave it off.

His hair was his most prized possession. Zayn learned a lot about styling through Pam. She gave him her advice here and there when he was trying things out. Soon, he discovered his own style and did ones that suited him. Zayn was looking to pull tonight, wanting to burn off that extra stress and he didn’t want to wank it off.

The half-vampire was hoping to have a one-night stand tonight so he had worn his black tight-fitted long-sleeved tee shirt that hugged his body nicely and a pair of black pants that accentuated his legs. The Halfling had lost his virginity to his maker, Eric Northman. They were both horny that one time and it felt natural to seek each other’s company. Eric was rather rough with him but he didn’t mind.

That wasn’t the only innocence he had lost in the hands of his maker. Zayn had watched brutal killings of vampires and even done a few himself because of his maker. He learned that he needed to be cold-hearted at times, just like his maker. But he did have a heart still and felt guilt over them.

“You’re gonna have to choose someone here, mate. Otherwise you’ll be dealing with your hands again tonight,” Ant advised. Zayn nodded.

“I know, I just hope that an attractive person will swing by before I am forced to shimmy over to nerd boy over there.”

The bar was lively, the usual vampire dancer and strippers putting on shows in their stands. The patrons on the bar were conversing lightly and some were dancing. The music they had put on was a few tunes selected by Zayn because Pam and Eric had no clue of any human customs. All in all, everything was going smoothly.

Zayn noticed Pam approach the bar with a serious expression on her face.  She was wearing a full-on leather suit tonight and that gave her a very dominant aura. “Eric needs you to take his place,” she said. “He’s got some serious shit he needs to attend to.” Zayn nodded, accepting the task.

“Looks like you need to become eye candy, huh, Malik?” Ant teased. Zayn wrinkled his nose in annoyance and rolled his eyes.

“Duty calls,” he replied before sauntering off to the dais where Eric was sitting and waiting, moving swiftly between the throng of people.

Once Zayn had reached the blond vampire, Eric gave an appreciative nod. “You’re fast,” he said, smiling slightly. Zayn returned his smile briefly.

“I’m a vampire. It’s my thing,” he said, jokingly. Eric got up from his seat.

“Becoming entertainment is also your thing now,” he stated. “Just sit on the throne, look pretty and make sure nothing bad happens all right?”

Zayn mock-saluted him. “Easy enough.” The blond vampire gave him a nod of approval and left with Pam in tow. They both had serious looks on their faces when they left. Zayn only hoped that it was nothing terrible but he honestly doubted that. Anything that needed his maker’s attention was bad enough.

…

Ten minutes in and the bar was getting packed. So far, nothing bad had occurred yet and Zayn hoped it stayed that way. He had spotted some attractive men he wouldn’t mind taking home but he could not just leave his perch on the throne. He was supposed to be supervising-slash-entertaining. Keeping the aloof expression on his face, Zayn’s eyes roamed the bar.

On the left side, Zayn spotted Ant skillfully handling several patrons at once. That was why he was picked as their bartender. That and the fact that Zayn and him really kicked it off. He was one of the only employees that weren’t cowering in their boots in Eric’s presence (other than Ginger but she was an airhead most of the time) and was a great person to talk to.

Speaking of Ginger, Zayn watched as she moved expertly through the room. He had no idea what her purpose for being an employee was but as long as she wasn’t giving Fangtasia a bad name, she could stay. There were a couple of vampire strippers dancing right in front of Zayn’s eyes but he chose to ignore them. He wasn’t interested.

However, a couple of vampires on the dance floor were. Zayn just hoped that nothing would get out of hand. His eyes flitted to one corner of the room. There were four men sitting around a table. All of them were supernaturals, Zayn could tell. And all of them were staring right at him.

Before Zayn could blush under their gaze, a commotion caught his attention. His eyebrows furrowed as he made out the telltale signs of a brawl. Apparently, one of the drunker patrons had spilled his beer over one of the vampires (vampires rarely got drunk on alcohol. If they had drunken fairy blood then that was a different story).

“You little shit!” The beefy vampire whose shirt got spilled on was seething. He dropped his fangs. Zayn was worried for the drunk human. He knew that a brawl would not bring good favor to the vampires. He had to stop this. Before the vampire could lay a hand on the human, Zayn quickly (and by quickly, he used his vampire speed because it was so convenient) intercepted the hit.

“Whoa, man,” he said, trying to calm the vampire down. He caught the raised hand before it could touch the human. The vampire recoiled his hand and scowled at Zayn. “Can’t you see that he’s drunk? It was an accident.”

“This isn’t any of your business, kid,” the vampire growled, his fangs dropped. “Fucking move out of the way or I’ll hit you too.” The commotion had put majority of the activities in Fangtasia to a halt. Zayn could make out Ant’s worried expression over the other vampire’s shoulder.

Zayn narrowed his eyes, “Try me.” The vampire rose to that challenge and quickly went to slap Zayn’s face but Zayn was quicker. He stopped the hand and gripped it tightly.

“You’re not giving vampires a good image if you don’t stop this brawl,” Zayn said, slowly crushing the vampire’s bones in his hand. The other vampire whimpered in pain as Zayn easily deformed his hand. The other human patrons were on guard. Some already had their phones out and were filming the incident. “So, I suggest you get out of this bar and turn in for the night.”

“You’re not the boss of this place,” he protested as a last attempt. Zayn gave him a condescending look.

“No, I’m not,” he agreed. “But I am the progeny of the boss. He’s not here at the moment and he’s put me in charge. Therefore, what I say goes.” Zayn let go of the other vampire. He gestured to two of Fangtasia’s employees to escort the vampire outside. The two employees rushed to fulfill his nonverbal command.

The vampire sent Zayn a look full of hatred. “Human ass-kisser,” he insulted Zayn. The Halfling merely rolled his eyes. Great, a vampire with a bruised ego. He decided to ignore the other vampire and tend to the drunk human behind him. As soon as Zayn turned his back, the other vampire escaped the grasp of his escorts and charged for him.

“Watch out!” someone yelled. Zayn grabbed the human, ducked and rolled them both out of the vampire’s path of fury. He cursed and quickly got up, standing in his battle stance. Pam had told him that he was light on his feet so he knew to use that to his advantage.

The vampire charged at him, fists raised to land a punch or two. Zayn skillfully ducked out of the way and retaliated with a few punches of his own. Seeing that he could not defeat Zayn that way, the other vampire grabbed Zayn around the waist suddenly and threw him over his shoulder. With the amount of force of the throw, Zayn crashed into a couple of tables.

The Halfling groaned. Fuck, that was a smart move. Zayn may be a vampire but the impact of his fall certainly took a lot out of him. He scowled when he realized that his shirt was slightly ripped and his jeans were dirty. There went his favourite outfit. Not to mention, he probably looked like shit at the moment.

The other vampire grabbed one of the fallen pieces, its edge sharp enough to kill. Zayn’s eyes widened. He was going to use it as a stake.

“We need to rid this world of ya’ll ass-kissers,” the vampire sneered. He stalked closer and put his foot on Zayn’s shoulder, preventing him from getting up. Zayn was breathing hard, which was a peculiar thing for a vampire to do. He had to escape somehow and he wanted to do it with his shoulder intact. “Goodbye, pretty boy.”

Before the stake could be plunged into his heart, a hand managed to grab the stake and pulled it out of the vampire’s grasp. Zayn’s eyes looked into those of his saviour. It was one of the guys he had been eyeing earlier. The man had a muscular build and the warmest brown eyes Zayn had even seen.

The vampire growled, “Stay out of this, mutt.” Brown eyes growled back. Another hand pushed off the vampire’s foot off of Zayn’s shoulder. A pair of light blue eyes and blonde hair came into view.

“You all right?” he asked with a slight Irish twang. He was beautiful and the Halfling was questioning whether or not he was an angel. Zayn nodded, speechless. Another pair of hands helped him up and dusted him off.

“You okay, babe?” asked a deep voice. Zayn looked up at a tall, lean lad with emerald green eyes and long curls. Still mute, Zayn could only nod and he internally berated himself for looking like such an idiot. Before Zayn could further embarrass himself, a loud voice resonated in the room.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Eric asked, angrily. His eyes took in the scene of his trashed bar, his scared patrons, his slightly battered progeny and an angry vampire.

“This vampire was causing a scene,” Zayn turned to look at another lad who had feathery-brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. Man, Zayn was whipped. Eric raised an eyebrow at the vampire in mention.

“You fucker, it was all him!” the vampire pointed at Zayn who turned to face his maker.

“I was only making sure nothing bad happened,” Zayn explained. The other vampire huffed.

“You were interfering with my business!” he protested.

“You were threatening one of the patrons of this bar who, might I add, was drunk. It was an accident but you couldn’t accept that. I guess your mama never told you that you were one too,” Zayn hissed at him. Eric pursed his lips, his face void of any emotion.

“Zayn,” he said, a warning in his tone. The Halfling hung his head.

“Sorry,” he said in Swedish to his maker. Pam and Eric had taught Zayn a few things about Swedish as it was a language they were both fluent in. Other than Swedish, Zayn had managed to learn Arabic and a couple of other languages. The Halfling continued to speak to his maker in Swedish. “He was being a dick and he caused so much damage.”

“Speak in English, you little shit!” the other vampire commanded angrily. “This is fucking England.” Obviously the vampire felt uneasy that he had no idea what Zayn was conversing about. Eric narrowed his eyes at the vampire who was treating his progeny with such disrespect.

“Somebody’s dying tonight,” Pam spoke in Swedish. She grinned catlike. Pam lived for moments like this.

“I’ll take care of this,” Eric replied to Zayn in Swedish. He focused on the vampire who was the source of tonight’s problem. “You, sir, owe me a new bar. I am sheriff and no one trashes my bar and gets away with it.” He ordered some of the employees to cuff the man with silver and take him to his office as they had some business to settle.   

The vampire hissed as silver came in contact with his skin. Zayn winced too. He kind of felt sorry but then again, he also felt pleased. After the vampire was dragged away, Eric turned to the other patrons.

“Feel free to enjoy yourselves after my employees clean up the mess. I offer you all a free drink as a compensation for having your evening ruined,” Eric announced. The bar went back to normal after that.

And then Zayn remembered his four saviours. The Halfling turned around. “Thank you for helping,” he addressed them. “Without you guys, I would have been dead vampire guts.”

The brown-eyed one shrugged. “Don’t mention it.”

“Besides,” the blond one spoke up. “You kicked butt tonight too.”

“Yeah!” the green-eyed one of them agreed. “It was so cool how you did all those punches and—“

The feathery-haired one clasped a hand over the green-eyed one’s mouth, “What he meant to say was that we were all impressed by you.” Zayn nodded, shy all of a sudden.

“Thanks,” he said, giving them one of his nervous smiles. He suddenly remembered his duty, “Well I gotta go do my thing.” The other four men nodded understandingly. Zayn gave them a small smile before scurrying away.

God, he was such a loser.

…

God, they were such losers, Liam thought. How could they get a boy like him? Obviously the vampire was out of their leagues. He single-handedly impressed them all by standing up to a vampire that was bigger than him.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Louis asked, watching the vampire walk away to the throne on the dais. Harry looked at him questioningly.

“What is it that you are thinking, Lou?” he asked. Louis rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“I think I am thinking what you are, Lou,” Niall said. Louis nodded appreciatively.

“I knew I could count on you, Nialler.”

Harry frowned because he was still lost, “What are we thinking exactly?”

“That he’s the missing puzzle piece to our puzzle?” Liam asked, quoting Harry's words.

Louis nodded, “Yeah. With less of Harry’s poetry shit but yeah, that was what I was thinking.”

“Oh!” Harry beamed. “Then I was thinking the exact same thing then.”

Yep, Liam thought. Losers, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was one rollercoaster of a ride, huh? Zayn isn't all helpless. He can surely kick butt. Did you like it? I suck at fighting scenes but I hope it wasn't too horrible. I can't write a smut scene but I might try. A Zeric smut scene would have been fire though, especially experienced!Eric and virgin!zayn. Maybe we'll get one some time in the story (vampires are sexual creatures, remesber) But anyway, I wonder what the boys are going to do to get Zayn. Tell me what you think :)


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feelings are to be dealt with and Zayn doubts himself a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear to God that I hate this chapter. It had got to be the worst thing that I have written thus far. I feel like it doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit anywhere in the story. Sorry if this chapter seems pointless. Maybe it could compensate as a filler or something. I just hate this chapter very very much because it doesn't feel of good quality at all.  
> On a brighter note, it's Louis' birthday :)

“They’re here again,” Pam said, sidling up to Eric who stood at the bar in front of Zayn. Zayn was currently wiping a few wet glasses. The bar had just opened for business a few hours ago and not a lot of patrons had arrived yet. Usually, nobody arrived until it was three or four hours before they closed. People would usually come to the bar early either because they had a really rough day or they were celebrating something. “And they’re early.”

“Who, Pam?” Eric asked, a glass of wine in his hand. Their maker was clad in only a wife beater and leather pants. Pam tilted her head in the direction of the four supernaturals that had saved Zayn’s life the night before. Of course, Zayn would recognize them instantly. He was head over heels for them.

“Okay,” Eric said slowly. “They matter to us because?” Pam rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Look at him,” she gestured for Eric to look at Zayn. Their maker glanced at Zayn, noticing the obvious heart eyes the Halfling was trying (but failing) to hide over their four patrons. Normally (or if it was Pam’s case), the blond vampire would be ticked off by the childish behaviour. However, it tickled Eric’s nonexistent heart to see Zayn somewhat enamored over a werewolf, a witch, a spirit and a demon.

“Ah,” he started to smirk. “Little one here has got a crush.” Zayn blinked rapidly at that as if trying to make the metaphorical heart eyes disappear.

“What?” he asked, startled slightly. He didn’t realize that they were talking about him. “What do you mean?” As if on cue, Justin Bieber’s song of the same title flowed through the bar’s speakers. Pam groaned and rubbed her forehead.

“Ugh, I don’t know why we let you choose the songs,” she muttered loud enough for the other two to hear. Zayn grinned.

“Maybe it’s because you two don’t listen to music and I’m a cool teenager who is up to date with human customs,” the half-vampire commented slyly. Pam scowled.

“Remind me to deflate your ego,” she retorted, crossing her arms.

“Reminder set at 7 PM tomorrow night,” Zayn joked. Eric just watched the two banter, enjoying how comfortable they were getting with each other. Pam might not show it but Eric could tell that his first progeny was starting to tolerate the half-vampire.

The initial topic of their conversation had long been forgotten as Zayn and Pam continued to converse in their own way with one another. Eric didn’t know whether the deflection was intentional or not but he would have to have a word with his adopted progeny soon about his infatuation.

While he found it cute, it was certainly dangerous. A lot of risks could happen if Zayn’s secret was exposed to the public. He did not trust the four supernaturals as they had yet to prove themselves worthy of his trust. This also made Eric remember Doctor Ludwig’s visit yesterday that had him abandoning his post and putting Zayn there which had led to the vampire brawl. He had yet to tell Zayn about it but that could wait until later.

His half-vampire progeny might kill him for keeping the information to himself for a while before telling him but it was necessary. Eric had to think of a game plan and back up plans in case something went wrong. Doctor Ludwig had supplied him with some interesting information and it everything went well, it would fall into their favor.

A clatter snapped Eric out of his thoughts and brought Pam and Zayn’s conversation to a halt. Ant pushed a tray containing cups and cups of shots to Zayn’s direction. “They requested you to send it over to them,” Ant spoke. Zayn raised an eyebrow.

“Who’s they?” he asked.

“The Fantastic Four,” Ant gestured to Zayn’s four saviours who were crowded around a table (the same table as the night before but Zayn wasn’t keeping track or anything). They were all watching him and whispering amongst each other which didn’t help Zayn’s nerves.

“Looks like Zaynie won’t be entertained by his hand tonight,” Pam said in Swedish as she gave Zayn a smirk. Zayn rolled his eyes.

“When are you gonna get some, Pam?” he asked in Swedish at the female. Pam gave him a pointed look.

“I don’t fuck around,” right. Pam was only interested in drinking blood from someone. It took someone special for Pam to even consider having sex with.

“Go get your boy toys, little one,” Eric interjected in Swedish. Mirth filled his eyes and he was grinning.

“They are not my boy toys,” the youngest protested, grabbing the tray. Pam waved her hand dismissively.

“Yeah, yeah. Walk over there confidently, add a little sway to your hips and give them that seductive pout you like doing,” Pam said, shooing the Halfling from the bar. Zayn rolled his eyes again and turned to walk away from them.

“Don’t trip,” Eric joined in with Pam’s teasing. Honestly, he deserved a break from both of them. Luckily, they would die for the day. Snickering internally, Zayn thanked his lucky stars that he was not subjected to that vampire law. Ah, the perks of being a half-vampire.

Unfortunately, confidence was not one of those perks. As he neared the table, Zayn started to get even more nervous. His palms felt clammy and his heart seemed to speed up. He was glad that he managed to get to the table without spilling the drinks or making a fool out of himself.

“Hi!” Green Eyes said brightly. He gave Zayn a broad dimpled smile that made Zayn’s heart melt. The half-vampire quickly set down the tray so that he wouldn’t drop it.

“Hi,” he replied back. “Here’s your drinks.” Zayn knew he sounded awkward and out of place. If Pam was next to him, she would have been on the floor laughing.

“Could you spare a minute?” Brown Eyes asked. Zayn looked over his shoulder, his eyes searching for his maker to ask for permission. He saw Eric, still standing by the bar and sipping his wine. His maker seemed to understand what he wanted and nodded.

“Yeah,” he turned back to the four. “I guess I could stay for a while.”

“Great!” The feather-haired one said. “We should probably get introductions over with. My name’s Louis.” Zayn nodded, cataloguing the name in his head. Louis then introduced Brown Eyes as Liam, Green Eyes as Harry and the blond one as Niall.

“I’m Zayn,” he introduced himself. He felt like his name sounded boring compared to the other boys but they did not seem to mind.

“Zayn,” Liam said, testing the name on his tongue. “That’s a beautiful name for a beautiful person.” Zayn would be lying if he said he didn’t swoon at the way his name sounded on Liam’s tongue or at the compliment Liam gave him.

“Thanks,” he ducked his head in embarrassment. He took a few seconds to calmly collect himself before asking, “So, what brings you to Fangtasia?”

Zayn was never the master of small talk but he tried anyway. Although, he had to admit that that conversation starter was awful.

“Well, we saw reviews online and thought we’d check out the place,” Niall replied. Zayn nodded understandingly. Sometimes he would look up the bar online to see if they were doing a good job of running the place. He needed to know what else they could do to improve the bar and also had to keep up to date with whatever rumours or news that might concern the bar. Speaking of rumours and news…

“You were all over the news because of yesterday,” Harry told him excitedly. Zayn knew that too. As soon as he saw the headlines online a few hours ago, he quickly decided to ignore the internet for the rest of the day. “There were also a few videos of it. Watching the videos made me remind myself not to get on your bad side.”

Zayn shrugged, not really knowing how to react to the statement. Was it a compliment, was it a jab? Zayn would never know. “Sorry. I just got really defensive. This bar is something I love and put my heart and soul into.”

And it was true. From making mixtapes of Drake’s songs to helping out at the bar to being eye candy on some nights, Zayn felt as if he had contributed a lot to this bar. Other than that, he had felt useful and needed. Something that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Louis raised his hands up in a surrender motion. “No worries, mate. We all get defensive over something we love.” In Zayn’s mind, he imagined the words ‘ and we love you’ following after. However, Zayn was hopelessly pining and he did not enjoy it one bit.

“I love these three boys and I would get defensive if someone tried to hurt them,” Louis continued, smiling fondly at the other three at the table. They all smiled back at him, looking equally as fond and so in love with one another. Zayn’s heart kind of broke because this was a reminder that he wasn’t a part of their group. He wasn’t a part of their world.

And he wished that he was.

“Zayn,” Pam approached the table, causing them to turn their attention to her. Although it was a welcomed distraction, Zayn gave her a questioning glance. “Ant needs you at the bar,” she said, her tone clipped and cold like always. Zayn gave the boys a brief look and nodded to Pam.

“Yeah, all right,” he said and Pam walked away. He gave the boys an apologetic smile. “I gotta work.” They nodded at him understandingly and as soon as Zayn had been given the green light, he dashed off, unable to stomach seeing them so in love with each other and not in love with him.

Had someone given him a love potion or something? He had just met them, he should not be this besotted with them. Love at first sight was just a myth. He needed to get his shit together. Zayn had no time for love.

When Zayn arrived at the bar, he asked what Pam said Ant needed him for. Ant just gave him a weird look. “I didn’t say anything,” he denied. “I’m doing just fine.”

Confused, Zayn’s eyes scanned for Pam’s in the room that was quickly filling up with people. Did Pam just have impeccable timing or did she know that Zayn was having a slight crisis back there?

Whatever the case, it didn’t stop Zayn from doing his work absent-mindedly for the rest of the night.

…

“They seem to like you a lot,” Zayn’s head snapped up and his gaze met Pam’s as he wiped down one of the dirty tables of Fangtasia. Ever since that vampire brawl a few days ago, his four saviours came to Fangtasia almost every night. Zayn liked to think that it was because of him but he must be delusional. Why would anyone be interested in him in that way?

Just because his four saviours or rather, Louis, Liam, Niall and Harry, chatted with him every time they came to the bar, it didn’t mean that they were interested with him. They just found him intriguing because of the stunts he did a few days ago. It was bound to wear off and they would go hang out somewhere else. They were not looking for anything more from him.

Besides, the foursome had each other. Zayn had observed how close they were and how happy they looked together. They had some sort of sync and knowledge about one another that made Zayn want to get a piece of the action too. He had caught himself imagining fantasies about how he was the one Liam directed his fond gazes at or the one Harry gave his dimpled smile to. He wouldn’t even mind being on the receiving end of one of Louis’ snarky remarks or Niall’s bear hugs.

Zayn just wanted to feel wanted by someone who wasn’t his maker or Pam. Then again, Pam might throw him away the first chance she got but Zayn liked to think that she was warming up to him. Speaking of Pam…

“Who?” Zayn asked, playing dumb as he scrubbed the table with newfound irritation. He really didn’t want to discuss his crisis with Pam. She wasn’t exactly the type to hear about his boy problems. She was quite cynical sometimes and extremely blunt.

Pam rolled her eyes, “Don’t play dumb about this, Zayn. I could sense your thirst from a mile away and I’m not talking about blood.” Zayn pursed his lips and grabbed the rag before moving to another table and cleaning it. He could hear the clicking of Pam’s heels as she tailed after him.

When he looked up at her, she was standing there, her arms crossed over her chest with an expectant look on her face, “Well?” Zayn shrugged at her before continuing his work.

“Well what?” he asked back. “What do you want me to say?”

Pam lowered her arms and sighed harshly as if answering him was a hard job to do, “I want you to tell me how much you fawn over them and how much you wish that they would just man up and confess their infatuation for you.”

Zayn snorted, “I am not going to say those things. They’re not true.” But he wished that they were. He dropped the dirty rag into a bucket full of soap water to get rid of the dirt. He wetted it thoroughly and wringed it before wiping another table.

“You can fool yourself, Zayn but you can’t fool me,” Pam spoke wryly. “I can guess what you’re feeling inside. I’m not a fucking idiot. I see the way you look at them and I see the longing in your eyes. You want them.”

Her tone made Zayn’s head throb and the negative thoughts in his head piled up. The Halfling threw his hands up in exasperation. “So what if I do?” he asked, frustrated about how Pam managed to figure him out. Was he that obvious? What if it was obvious to them? Were they silently laughing at him every time he spoke to them? “What difference does it make? Why does it matter? More importantly, why does it matter to _you_?”

Zayn expected Pam to slap him because of his disrespecting tone towards her. He even expected her to walk away. She surprised him when she stayed at her spot, her face expressionless as usual.

“Look, I just want you to make the first move if they don’t,” Pam said calmly as if Zayn’s outburst had not bothered her at all. “It matters to me because I cannot stand to see another night where you stand there looking like a lovesick fool. It messes with a lot of things like your concentration to your job. It will not reflect good on me or Eric. So either get over the crush or get it over with. And if you get rejected, get over that too.”

_Get over it. Rejected. Get over. Over._

“You sure give good advice,” Zayn acknowledged softly, grabbing the rag to continue his job. “But, no. I’m not going to make the first move. If it bothers you that much, I will try to get over this crush I have. I don’t want to be slacking on the job or ruining your reputation. It’s a stupid infatuation anyway.” The half-vampire had to accept the fact that this crush of his was getting him nowhere and was ruining his work quality. However, he felt as if there was more to Pam’s words.

Pam nodded, satisfied. She turned to head in the direction of the office. However, Zayn stopped her with his next words. “One question though, did you really ask me about this because you hated seeing me lose focus on my jobs or do you actually care about me?” Doubt flooded his head. What if he was reading too much into this?

The other vampire seemed to ponder this question for quite some time before she finally answered. Usually Pam had a straight answer for everything. Her pause made Zayn nervous. Maybe he did over-think Pam’s actions.“I care about a lot of things; shoes, clothes, my reputation and Eric. However, I do not feel the same about you.”

Zayn started to feel worse than before. Maybe the only person that truly liked him was Eric. But then, did Eric like him for him or just enjoy the idea of having a half-vampire under his wing? Zayn hated the thoughts in his head, hated how they could be true. What if nothing changed? What if he was just the same useless, good for nothing, freak of nature—

A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his frazzled thoughts, “I may not care for you as I would for Eric but I do feel something,” Pam said. “I don’t hate you but I won’t be your best friend either. You could say that I am slightly fond of you.”

That managed to get a small smile out of Zayn and quieted his mind a little bit. He felt slightly warm at the admission. However, Pam quickly sobered up. “Do not tell anyone about this.”

“What, that you’re getting soft?” Zayn teased, unable to help himself. The mood in the room lightened up. Pam shot him a withering glare.

“I’m serious. Say one word and I will rip of your dick and shove it up your asshole,” she threatened before starting to walk away. The sun was coming up and she needed to be in her coffin.

Zayn, being the cheeky little shit that he sometimes was, had to have the last word. “A bit kinky there, Pam but if you like it then I’ll think about it.” That totally warranted a raised middle finger from Pam but Zayn didn’t mind.

Pam felt fondness for him and that made him sleep with a smile on his face. He did wish that a certain group of boys also felt fondness for him but he was supposed to get over them. Wistful wishes weren’t helping.

…

“I feel like he’s ignoring us,” Harry said from his spot on the couch. He took up the whole length of the couch, leaving his other three boyfriends to settle on the floor or the other seats as they watched television together.

“Who?” Louis asked, his eyes not leaving the show they were watching. It was some commentary on football, something that Harry wasn’t quite interested in.

“Zayn,” Harry answered. He remembered the sad looks he had caught Zayn giving them sometimes. Harry had always been a bit sensitive to other people’s feelings. “He doesn’t sound as upbeat as he did the first time we talked to him. He seems a lot more sullen nowadays.”

“You’re probably over-analyzing things, Haz,” Niall said. “There’s nothing wrong with Zayn.”

“But I can feel it,” Harry protested, not giving up. He knew that something was bothering Zayn. Niall looked like he wanted to argue further but Liam quickly intervened.

“Okay, we’ll go again tonight like we have this past few days and see for ourselves,” his answer seemed to appease both Niall and Harry.

Unfortunately, that night, Zayn was nowhere to be seen at Fangtasia. After some liquid courage, Niall had asked the female vampire that Zayn was always hanging out with about Zayn’s whereabouts. She answered vaguely that Zayn was out doing some errands.

Dejected, they decided to return home. Considering that they were all at least slightly drunk, Liam drove slowly to prevent any accidents. He should have named himself the designated driver but he had forgot all about that when he nervously awaited Zayn’s appearance that night.

As they were moving slowly down an empty street, loud sounds of scuffling could be heard through the rolled down windows (Niall said that the fresh air stopped him from being so queasy). Although it was none of their business, the foursome felt curious, especially when they heard grunts of pain.

Maybe they could help out.

However, their noble intention died down when they saw Zayn in the alley. There was blood on his clothes, his hair was mussed and slightly matted with blood and he had his fangs dropped. Despite his build and height, he towered over his cowering victim, looking menacing and feral.

When Zayn saw the four of them, he merely smirked, his bloodied fangs gleaming in the moonlight and his beautiful hazel eyes looked deadly. A finger came up to his face and wiped the blood running down his chin. Zayn put his finger into his mouth and sucked it clean. The four supernaturals gulped. How could someone look so scary and so hot at the same time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I hadn't let you down. If you're disappointed in this chapter, I understand. It feels like a very badly written one. Anyway, drop me a line and tell me what you think. Eric has some interesting information at hand, are you guys curious about what it is? Pam seems to like Zayn now. Speaking of Zayn, what's going on with him? Sorry for the short LLNH moments. They'll get longer. I promise that the next chapter will be better.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events that happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't think I would be back so soon so consider this a Christmas present. Happy Holidays to all that celebrate. Here I bring you a chapter that is somewhat heavy in the feels but I hope that it doesn't dampen your holiday spirits. I'm sure you don't want to read my rant so on with the storyyyy

Zayn immediately knew what was wrong as soon as he felt the moon rise high up in the sky as he was dealing with a few ‘errands’ Eric had wanted done. He felt his blood rushing through his veins and his pupils started to dilate. He was slowly losing conscious control over his body and he felt very drowsy. His fangs itched to be dropped, making his upper gum ache. Zayn knew what this was and he berated himself for being so fucking careless.

It was that time of the month again.

Zayn was supposed to be chained in the basement of Fangtasia. He was supposed to be fed blood. He was supposed to be locked up, contained so that he could not cause chaos in the night. However, it was too late for that. Zayn wasn’t in his cage. He was free and people were going to suffer for that.

Starting with the shifter that Eric had wanted him to deal with. Zayn felt his fangs drop without warning. A second later, he had the shifter pinned to the wall of the alley and his fangs were embedded deep in his neck, sucking out blood. However, the shifter was a fighter and he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

The struggling shifter took out a piece of silver and shoved it against the skin of Zayn’s hand, making him hiss and release his hold on the shifter. His intended victim fell onto the ground. Zayn scowled at the shifter, clearly mad. Before the shifter could attack him again, Zayn kicked the silver away and slammed the shifter on the ground.

“You’re not playing nice, so I won’t either,” Zayn barely recognized the sound of his own voice. It sounded too hoarse to him. He barely felt his lips move to utter those words. He knew what he was doing was wrong but he couldn’t stop himself. He couldn’t control himself.

Zayn continued to feed on the shifter’s blood. He wasn’t a quiet one, persistently making noises and annoying the hell out of Zayn. He even made Zayn’s clothes dirty with blood. A few moments later, the sound of footsteps drew Zayn’s attention away from his meal. He stood up and smelled scents that were very familiar to him.

Harry, Niall, Liam and Louis stood in front of him, completely gobsmacked. Zayn subconsciously felt himself smirk. His vampire side was in glee of more food. It played the seduction card, luring its next victims in. Zayn just wished that they would get out of there before he fed on them.

“Zayn?” Liam asked cautiously. That was a stupid move, Zayn thought. He didn’t want to do it but Liam’s blood smelled so enticing. Zayn used his vampire speed to push Liam against the wall.

“Smells so good,” he mumbled, nosing along Liam’s neck. His scent smelled so inviting. It was slightly musky with a hint of some kind of cologne. Zayn even detected the stench of alcohol but it was faint. His mouth watered, he wanted to suck Liam dry in more ways than one.

“Zayn, stop,”Liam protested, putting his hands on Zayn’s upper arms, pushing him away. He was much taller than Zayn and had much more strength even though he was slightly drunk. Zayn didn’t like that. He growled at Liam lowly.

“Zayn, are you all right?” Harry asked, using the tone one would when approaching a scared animal. Zayn turned his attention to Harry instead, pinning him to the ground.

Zayn’s eyes coruscated with something wicked. Harry gulped, feeling terribly scared and wanting to escape. “Z-zayn, no, please,” he pleaded weakly.

His sudden fear caused an increase in his heartbeat rate which in turn caused blood to flow through him faster. Harry’s heartbeat was like music to Zayn’s ears. “I’ll be all right as soon as I drink your blood,” the half-vampire stated, licking his fangs.

Harry looked beautiful on the ground, his curly hair fanned around him like a halo and his emerald eyes wide with fear. Too bad that Zayn was going to drain him of his blood. Maybe if he was feeling generous, Zayn might even consider turning Harry.

“Fucking do something quick, Niall,” someone shouted suddenly. There was commotion happening behind the two of them but Zayn paid them half a mind. He had his meal in front of him and he intended to enjoy it.

Before Zayn could bite Harry, something hit the back of his head and his world turned black.

…

Louis looked at Niall, wide-eyed. “What the hell?” he demanded, eyes flittering between the unconscious vampire, Niall and the piece of wood in Niall’s hand. “What’d you do that for?” Niall gave him an equally anxious look.

“Well, you asked me to do something quick, so I did,” Niall exclaimed, defending himself. He threw the piece of wood away, suddenly disgusted with it. To prevent Harry from becoming Zayn’s dinner, Niall had grabbed a piece of wood he saw laying on the ground (lucky day for Harry) and hit the vampire on the back of his head.

Harry sat up, the unconscious vampire currently positioned in his lap. Zayn’s head lolled back and the wizard used his arm to support his head so that Zayn wouldn’t feel a terrible pain in his neck tomorrow.

“I didn’t mean for you to knock him out,” Louis replied.

“Well, what else was I supposed to do?” Niall asked, irritated. Liam stepped in before they started fighting.

“Maybe it is a good idea that he’s unconscious,” the werewolf said. Louis looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, he was hard to handle when he was conscious. At least this way, we can deal with him better.” Niall nodded in agreement and gave Louis a smug look. The demon rolled his eyes.

“So what’s the plan?” Harry asked, standing up and cradling the vampire in his arms. Zayn was lighter than he had thought. Even with the blood on him, he looked beautiful.

“What else, we take him home,” Louis pointed back to the general direction of their car. “I mean, I know we should be sending him back to the bar but this is going to draw in a lot of negative attention to Fangtasia because of how Zayn currently looks. We all know how much that bar means to Zayn. Besides, we’re drunk off both alcohol and adrenaline. The only reason why any one of us is coherent is because we’re too delirious right now. Once this wears off, we’ll be drunk all over.”

Liam hummed, “Fair enough. We take him home then.”

Niall and Harry weren’t going to argue as they barely had any other suggestion of their own. Besides, Louis’ plan made sense to them at the moment. Any regrets would be dealt with later. They all piled into the car. Louis was riding shotgun while Liam drove and the other two sat in the back with Zayn sprawled across their laps.

Niall almost cooed at how innocent Zayn looked in his sleep. If the events of that night weren’t so fresh in his mind, the spirit would say that Zayn was an angel. He cradled Zayn’s head in his lap and let his mind wander off to his fantasies where Zayn was in love with them.

But Zayn had proven that he could be dangerous. Could they handle him if this happened again?

When they arrived home, they put Zayn in one of their spare bedrooms. Louis went to their room and took out a pair of silver handcuffs (they were kinky bastards after all) from their toy box. He went back into the room Zayn and the other boys were in and cuffed Zayn’s hands together with the headboard.

The boys all cringed when they heard the slight hiss made from Zayn’s hands coming into contact with the silver. He was going to have bruises in the morning but they knew that they had to do it. A pair of normal handcuffs would be easy for him to break out off if he was still in that weird mood of his.

“Remind me to buy some fluffy handcuffs in the future so that Zayn won’t get hurt from it,” Louis said absent-mindedly with his arms akimbo as he stood near the bed. When he realized what he had just uttered, he stared at the others in shock and they stared back at him, equally as surprised.

“Uh,” it was one of those rare moments where Louis was tongue-tied. He scratched the back of his head hastily. “You know, if he ever becomes one of us.” Harry grabbed Louis’ hand.

“It’s okay, Lou,” he said, comforting him. “We all feel an attraction to him. You aren’t the only one.”

Liam sighed, “I know that I almost got my blood drained tonight but I can’t help but have fantasies of Zayn holding me down and riding me.” Niall bit his lip.

“A bit explicit there but not unwelcomed,” he commented. Louis cracked a grin.

“Niall, you dirty lad,” he laughed. Niall frowned and poked Louis in the tummy.

“You’re one to talk, what with your bondage kink and whatnot,” he retorted defensively. Harry gave them both admonishing looks.

“No kinkshaming here,” he said. The two boys had the decency to look ashamed of themselves.

“We should all get some shut-eye. Who knows when Zayn’ll wake up,” Liam said, getting up from his seat on the bed.

Louis scoffed, “He’s a vampire. They don’t wake up in the day. We’ll be fine.” Before they moved out, Niall brought up an interesting question.

“Are we safe around him though?” he asked. “I mean, I feel attracted to him and I like him a lot but what if this happens again in the future and we don’t get as lucky as tonight?”

Harry shrugged. “We’ll figure it out later, Nialler. We’re all too knackered at the moment.” However, Niall had already made a subconscious decision in his head. He would protect his boys against anything that threatened them.

And if that included Zayn, so be it.

…

When Zayn came to, he felt like utter shit. It was as if he had been run over by a bus ten times, been stampeded on by a herd of cattle and finally been kicked around like a football. His head hurt, his body hurt, his hands hurt. Literally, every inch of his body felt on fire and uncomfortable.

Zayn tried to move his arms so that he could massage his wrists. Unfortunately, he soon realized that his wrists were bound. With silver, nonetheless. Zayn looked above him at the silver cuffs in panic before he scanned the room he was in. It was a very lavished room, quite an unusual place to keep your hostage in. Where was he? What was he doing in this unfamiliar room?

Did he get captured? Oh, Eric and Pam would be worried about him. The half-vampire pulled his hands to test the strength of his restraints. He winced in pain when the silver dug into his wrists, adding more pain there. He knew his hands were bleeding, he just knew because they were stinging badly.

Zayn struggled on the bed, kicking the covers off him. If he wasn’t careful, he could possibly rip his wrists off. He grunted in pain when he twisted the wrong way. The headboard banged to the wall a couple of times and Zayn groaned. He had imagined that the next time he made that happen was when he was being fucked. Sadly, that was not the case.

The sound of hurried footsteps made Zayn still. Oh no, his captor was coming. Before Zayn had the chance to play dead, the door to the room opened and Zayn’s eyes met Liam’s.

_Liam?_

The events of the night before surfaced in Zayn’s head. He remembered losing control, remembered attacking the shifter before moving onto Harry and Liam. After that, it was all blank. Liam walked into the room.

“You’re awake,” he stated. Zayn refrained the urge to roll his eyes.

_No shit, Sherlock._

“You’re awake,” Liam breathed again. Zayn gave him an annoyed look.

“And?” his voice sounded rough. His throat felt as dry as the Sahara desert.

“It’s only nine in the morning,” Liam spoke as his eyes flickered to the wall clock. A string of curses went through Zayn’s mind. A normal vampire wasn’t supposed to be awake at the moment. This is a huge mistake. What kind of lie could he use to save himself?

“C-can you please remove these?” Zayn moved his bound hands slowly, careful enough not to upset the wounds he knew he had under the handcuffs. Liam hesitated.

“How do I know that you won’t attack me like last night?” Zayn flinched at the word ‘attack’. He gave Liam a pleading look.

“Please,” he begged. “I won’t do it again, I promise.” That seemed to convince Liam and he took out keys from the drawer of the bedside table. He unlocked the handcuffs and pulled them away from Zayn’s wrists with care. Liam gasped when he saw the red flesh underneath the silver. Zayn was bleeding.

“Hold on,” he said, rushing into the bathroom. Zayn slowly sat up and bit his lip, staring at his wrists. They were in bad condition. The effect of silver onto a vampire’s skin was similar to that of plastic being in contact with a hot metal. The hot metal would melt the plastic. In Zayn’s case, the silver melted his skin.

Zayn could escape now, while Liam was in the bathroom looking for the first aid kit. This was his chance, he was unguarded. However, if he went out there, in the weakened state he was in, he was bound to get caught by humans and his secret would be uncovered to the public. If he stayed, he might only have to tell his secret to only four more people.

Liam came out of the bathroom before Zayn could make a decision to run away. He sat on the bed, right next to Zayn and started treating his wrists. He cleaned them up before he bandaged them. Zayn knew that although his vampire healing would speed up the process, it would still take quite a while for him to heal.

“Better?” Liam asked. Zayn nodded, the stinging had somewhat lessened.

“Yo, Liam, you in here—ah!” Niall had walked into the room in search of Liam and found the werewolf and the vampire awake. He looked at the wall clock just like Liam had done and did a double take. “How are you awake?”

Zayn became alarmed. What should he do now?

Luckily, Liam took pity on him. He gave Niall a scolding look. “He isn’t in a state for answering questions. He’s weak. Could you run down to that convenience store down the street and buy the synthetic blood?”

Niall crossed his arms, looking at Zayn with slight distrust in his eyes. “Why? So that he can get stronger and drain us like he wanted to last night?”

Zayn felt worse now. He had put their lives in danger so they had every reason to be wary of him. However, he felt terrible that he had frightened them in such a way. They were scared of him, they didn’t trust him. He had royally messed up.

“I’m sorry about that. It was not my intention,” Zayn tried to apologize, ignoring the scratchy feeling in the back of his throat. Niall opened his mouth to give Zayn a reply (and Zayn betted that it was going to be one that made Zayn’s heart break even more) but Liam interrupted.

“Niall, just go,” Liam said. Niall huffed but he went anyway. Once Niall was out of earshot, Liam turned back to Zayn and gave him an apologetic look.

“Sorry, about Nialler. He’s just a bit—“

“He doesn’t trust me,” it was more of a statement than a question. Liam made a dying whale sound.

“It’s not that he doesn’t trust you,” he stumbled over his words. “It’s just that he’s worried about our safety around you given the recent events.” Liam feared that he might have offended Zayn with his choice of words. However, when he looked at Zayn, the other lad seemed defeated.

“You don’t have to—have to try and make me feel better, Liam,” Zayn stammered slightly. “What I did was wrong and it wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t fucking careless.”

“What exactly happened, Zayn?” Liam asked. Zayn shut his eyes tightly as he tilted his head down. He felt so emotionally unstable. His shoulders started to shake and whimpers came out of his mouth. He wanted to tell Liam. He wanted to explain to them all. But was he allowed? Would he mess up things for Eric and Pam and ultimately, himself?

Zayn soon realized that tears were falling down his face. If Zayn was a normal vampire, he would be crying blood instead of salty water. However, Zayn was still partially human.

Liam seemed to take notice of that too. “Why aren’t you crying blood? Zayn, what’s going on? What are you?” he asked, worriedly.

_What are you?_

This sentence floated in Zayn’s head, repeating over and over. He had several answers to that and none of them were flattering.

“Oh, baby,” Liam breathed, bringing his arms around Zayn in an embrace. “It’s okay, love,” he said, trying to soothe Zayn. Zayn hiccupped a couple of times, silently crying into Liam’s shirt.

When Niall came back with Tru Blood and the other two in tow, Zayn was reduced to a few sniffles and bloodshot eyes. Liam quickly handed him one of the bottles, commenting on how Zayn must be famished. Harry and Louis seemed concerned too but Zayn only cared for the feelings he was getting from Niall.

Niall was cautious of him and Zayn couldn’t blame the lad. If he was in Niall’s shoes, he might have done the same thing. Zayn opened the cap and sipped the synthetic blood. Tru Blood had all the essentials that vampires needed to live on and Zayn felt a little bit better after drinking it. It didn’t taste good though.

His palms started to get clammy when he felt the weight of all their gazes on him. They would expect him to tell them. One part of him was ready and the other part wasn’t.

A gasp made them all turn their gaze to Louis as the demon looked at Zayn’s bandaged wrists to the handcuffs on the floor that had blood and skin on them. “I didn’t know that they would hurt that bad,” Louis said, taking a seat by Zayn’s side on the bed. He grabbed one of Zayn’s hands and rubbed his finger’s over the back of it.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, sadly. Zayn didn’t miss the way Niall seemed to stand up straighter, as if on alert. If someone drove a stake through his heart, it would be less painful to Zayn.

“C-can we go to Fangtasia?” he asked the boys shyly. “I promise to explain everything.” The boys shared a look with each other, silently conversing through their eyes.

“Yeah, okay,” Harry said, making the decision for the group. “But rest up first. We’ll take you there when it’s nearing sundown.” Zayn nodded.

Zayn placed the bottle of Tru Blood on the bedside table and laid back down on his back. Maybe catching a few winks would lessen the pain he felt inside though he doubted it. The half-vampire berated himself. He was supposed to get rid of his infatuation but instead, here he was, getting dragged deeper into it.

A hand playing with his hair made him feel sleepy and soon his eyes closed and he was in a black abyss yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry. Nialler loves Zayn. He's just a bit worried. I'm sure you'll understand. For the first time, Eric and Pam were not in this chapter.Told ya that the Zianourry would get longer. Anyway, what do you think happens in the next chapter? How will Eric and Pam react? How will the boys react to Zayn's secret? How will Zayn react to Eric's secret? Expect an update soon because I am on a roll. Oh, what did you get for Christmas? Comment below !


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn reveals a few things, Eric reveals a few things. Things are about to get serious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! I had to rewrite this chapter a couple of times because I didn't like how it turned out the first few times. However, I think this was the best out of all the other possible outcomes of the chapter. We'll get into the plot more. I hope you like it. I still have my worries about this chapter. It seems out of the blue and kind of irrelevant to how the story flowed. But then again, that's just me.

True to their words, the lads took Zayn back when it was nearing sundown. They had cleaned him up and given him fresh clothes (Louis’ size was the closest). The wounds on his wrists had somewhat healed, leaving angry red marks so they decided to leave it without a bandage. When they got to Fangtasia, it was already sundown. Knowing that his maker and Pam would be awake, Zayn told them to enter through the back door.

As soon as they stepped through the back door, a sudden movement that came from the office brought them to a halt. Eric stood in front of the five, looking disheveled. That was the first time Zayn ever saw his maker looking something close to worried. When Eric’s eyes landed on Zayn, he surprised Zayn by bringing him close and kissing him soundly on the lips.

“I was so worried about you,” he said when he pulled away. He ran his hands through Zayn’s hair, over his face and onto his arms. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Before Zayn could answer, Eric’s eyes were already on his damaged wrists. He glared at the four lads behind Zayn, accusing them of the crime.

In a blink of an eye, Eric had grabbed the nearest one to Zayn, who happened to be Louis, and shoved him against the wall. “What the fuck did you do?” he asked, menacingly. Eric glared at Louis and the demon glared back, his eyes turning red.

Liam growled in warning. Eric hissed in Louis’ face. “Shut up, mutt,” he spat without looking at Liam. “I will fucking murder you for laying a hand on my progeny.” Not wanting a fight to happen, Zayn pulled Eric off of Louis. The older vampire was surprised that Zayn stopped him from ripping the four lads to shreds.

“Let’s go into the office. I have a few things to explain,” Zayn said, sounding somewhat exhausted. Reluctantly, Eric nodded and led the way.

Inside the office, Pam was already there, seated on the table. She was sitting up straight, obviously the scuffle outside had garnered her interest. Eric sat behind his desk, Zayn sat in a spare chair in the room and the four supernaturals took up the couch.

“What is this, a fucking intervention?” Pam asked, curiously. “And where have you been, Zayn? This place was getting lonely without you.” When Zayn didn’t respond with his usual witty remark, Pam turned serious. Something was amiss here.

No one spoke for a few moments. The four supernaturals were busy looking around the minimalistic office. Eric was observing them, obviously still figuring out whether they were friends or foes. Pam was examining her nails silently. This wasn’t her conversation to start. Then that left Zayn.

“I guess I should start by asking permission,” six pair of eyes were on him in an instant and the Halfling almost cowered under their gazes. Zayn turned to Eric. “Master, I need your permission to tell them about what I am.” Eric’s eyes darkened.

“No,” he said, his tone suggesting that it was non-negotiable. “You know very well the answer to that. Fucking no. Never in a million years.” However, Zayn was persistent.

“Please, master, they’ve already seen what I can do, it’s almost out there, I should just tell them,” Zayn begged. “They know that I can do things a vampire can’t. I have to tell them.” If he didn’t get his maker’s permission, things were going to be harder to explain to the other lads.

“No,” Eric threw a scornful look at the four supernaturals. “Wipe away their memories, glamour them. Do whatever but your secret stays between us. I know you’re infatuated with them, but please put them aside. If you tell them, you will not only be endangering us, but also them. If one of our enemies is coming after you and know of your affiliations with them, they will target them.”

Zayn glowered, “If we glamour them and they get questioned, our enemies will still be able to see that their memories have been tampered with. They’ll find a witch that can restore those memories and come after us anyway. There’s really no difference. Your way means they don’t know what to expect if they get targeted, mine means that at least they’ll be prepared.”

The older vampire and the Halfling had a stare off. Eric looked to Pam for advice and Pam shrugged. “Why don’t you ask the ones whose memories you want to glamour?” she suggested. That was when Eric remembered of the other four supernaturals’ presence in the room. They had watched the entire scene attentively.

The maker gave Pam a look that questioned her sanity. She gave him a look that said ‘go for it’. Zayn bit his lip as he watched the exchange. Eric glanced at the four with distrust clear in his eyes. Zayn knew what his maker was thinking. He was wary of them.

“With all due respect, sir,” Liam spoke up. If this was any other situation, it would seem as if Liam was talking to the parents of the person he was courting. “You might not find us trustworthy just yet but we intend to earn your respect and trust.”

“And how do you intend to earn it?” Eric asked, raising his eyebrows. He clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them, giving the four a look that said, ‘Go on then. Amuse me.’

“We’ll protect Zayn’s secret if he chooses to share it with us,” Niall answered. Eric chuckled darkly.

“Why would I waste time telling you, when I could just glamour you and be done with it? Or better yet, just dispose of you altogether,” a wicked gleam appeared in Eric’s eyes.

“You’ll break Zayn’s heart.” Harry decided to take the plunge here. He heard Eric mention an infatuation Zayn had with them and he had sensed something coming from the vampire. He was going on a hunch but it was all they had to actually convince Zayn’s maker.

“Zayn’s a vampire, he doesn’t have a heart,” Eric retorted.

“Then why is it beating?” Liam asked. He didn’t know how he hadn’t picked up on it earlier. He heard a slight beating sound come from Zayn. It was very faint. One would not realize it was beating if they weren’t searching for it. Zayn was a vampire, their hearts weren’t supposed to beat.

“Just let me tell them,” Zayn pleaded, his eyebrows were furrowed together and he sent Eric a desperate look. “Forget the risks for once. This secret will come out sooner or later. Stop trying to shelter me and treating me like a child. ”

Eric clenched his teeth. “This will mess up all of my plans, Zayn.” Zayn scowled. That’s all he had been hearing these days. Plans, reputations, those could all go to hell.

“Is that what I am, a pawn in your grand scheme of things?” the Halfling glared at Eric. “Never have I felt so used because of what I am. I can’t do anything unless it doesn’t affect your ‘plans’. It’s like you expect me to mess up.”

“Because you do mess up, Zayn,” Eric replied coolly. “You’re young and wild. You’re terribly inexperienced. Forgive me for being frank but you’re also naïve. I make plans to keep us safe. It’s not my fault that you’ve been rebelling a lot lately.”

“You’re just mad because you can’t control me like you can do to Pam. Too bad you can’t kill me either,” Zayn countered. “I’m too valuable, aren’t I? Too ‘exotic’. If I wasn’t a half-vampire, you wouldn’t care about me when you found me years ago.”

“What?” Four voices gasped out. Eric groaned.

“There you go, you’ve ruined it,” Eric slapped a palm to his forehead. “Now we really need to glamour them.”

“Eric, maybe you need to stop being paranoid,” Pam said suddenly. Eric stared at his progeny in shock. Even Zayn couldn’t stop himself from gaping at her. Since when was Pam on his side? Pam rolled her eyes. “I really don’t see a problem with being open about Zayn.”

“People will try to take him away, Pam. They’ll experiment on him,” Eric replied. Pam scoffed.

“Like you and Doctor Ludwig haven’t done so,” Pam said. “Just let him tell his four boy toys. If they snitch, you kill them. If people come after us, you kill them. You’re Eric fucking Northman. Since when did you become this afraid? You’ve never made so many plans before. It’s like you’re a fucking pansy.”

Eric didn’t like the fact that his real progeny was going against him. But what she said had struck a cord in him. Now that he thought of it, Eric didn’t remember when making plans was so important to him. Scheming here and there was a given thing but over-thinking and over-planning were bizarre traits for him to have.

Although he didn’t want to, Eric finally nodded reluctantly. If the four supernaturals were halfway there, why not just tell the whole story? Especially when the Halfling had blurted out the truth already. Zayn gave Pam a look that conveyed his gratitude because she had managed to convince Eric.

“So it’s true then? You’re a half-vampire?”

The Halfling turned to Niall, Louis, Liam and Harry. They had been watching the whole exchange with bated breath. Zayn slowly breathed in and out to get himself together so that he could reveal the truth about himself to them. If they did not accept him after, it was okay. Zayn had prepared himself for that. They were never his in the first place. They did not owe it to him to spare his feelings.

“Yes. I’m half-vampire and half-human,” Zayn said, breaking the long pause in the room. The four supernaturals stared at him.

“What?” Louis asked. Pam rolled her eyes.

“He just said that he is half-vampire aka half-human. What part of that do you not get?” Pam responded sassily.

Louis narrowed his eyes at Pam, “No, I get it. I just—how?”

Zayn shrugged. “We don’t know how it happened. But Eric’s not my real maker and Pam isn’t my real vampire sibling. They found me and they offered me their guidance so I took it. I’m not a complete vampire.”

“So that’s why you were able to wake up in the morning like a normal lad and also shed tears instead of blood,” Liam guessed. Zayn nodded.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “And last night was one of the nights where I have this intense bloodthirst that I can’t control.”

Eric cursed loudly in Swedish. “How could I have fucking forgotten,” he scolded himself. He had stupidly sent Zayn to do his errands and completely forgot that he was almost reaching his bloodthirst. Over the course of three years, Eric learnt that if they gave Zayn blood at short intervals, his bloodthirst wouldn’t be too intense. Zayn would still be able to control his body.

However, over the past couple of months, he had neglected that part of his duty and figured that Zayn could handle himself. Obviously the young Halfling also forgot to feed himself and so he lost control.

“That shifter’s probably dead?” Eric questioned. Zayn shrugged. He didn’t know to what extent did he feed on the shifter from last night. Eric rubbed his forehead. This was a mess. “I’ll need to sort this shit out. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Zayn bit his lip, “Sorry.”

Eric shook his head, “It’s not your fault. It was an accident.” He ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. “We’re gonna get into a lot of shit for this. They’ll come after you, they’ll come after us. They might even go to the Vampire authority.”

Pam pursed her lips. “So?” she asked. “You can handle it. You’re Eric Northman.”

Eric glared at her, “I’m not invincible, Pam. I can’t get out of everything.”

“Well you better hope you’re invincible after you tell Zayn the thing that you’ve been hiding from him,” that sentence from Pam made Zayn turn his full attention to Eric.

“What thing?” he asked. Eric waved his hand around, clearly trying to dismiss the matter. “What thing?” Zayn asked again, gritting his teeth.

“You better tell him, Eric,” Pam advised. “He needs to know what might happen.”

While Pam and Zayn seem to be ganging up on Eric, the other four supernaturals were still trying to process the information they had been given. Zayn was a half-vampire. What did that entail? With the unpredictable bloodthirsts that Zayn had, he clearly was dangerous. So many risks existed if they were to pursue a relationship with him.

Niall frowned, why did it have to be the dangerous ones that were so attractive? How could he be in a relationship with someone he was slightly afraid of? What if Zayn hurt his boys in the future? Sure, he would probably not be in control of his actions but would Niall let Zayn’s temperamental behaviour decide the future of their relationship?

Liam noticed that his spirit boyfriend was thinking far too hard. He knew what was going on through Niall’s head. Even he had those doubts but adding Zayn to their relationship felt so right. His werewolf side was telling him that this was the right choice to make and Liam always followed his instincts.

Harry seemed to have picked up on Niall’s emotions as well because he reached across Liam’s lap to put his hand over Niall’s knee and sending the spirit an assuring look. Niall was somewhat grateful for that, feeling calmer. The doubts were still in his head but they had been pushed to the back of it.

Louis noticed his two boyfriends fussing over Niall so he couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong, Nialler?” Niall just shook his head lightly and gave Louis a tight smile.

“Nothing,” he answered. Louis knew that he was lying but he decided to let it go. He’ll talk to Niall later.

Back to the vampires, Eric was pissed off that both Pam and Zayn were going against him for the second time that night. He was starting to question whether he was a good mentor or not because these two seemed to keep on rebelling against his authority.

“Fine,” he grounded out. He sent Pam a disapproving look. “I’ll tell him.”

All the inhabitants in the room focused their attention on Eric, sensing that this conversation was going to take a serious turn if it hadn’t already. “Doctor Ludwig came to visit a few days ago.”

Zayn nodded, “And?”

“She told me a couple of things about the blood sample of yours she had been testing on,” Eric started to explain. “She enlisted the help of a few trusted witches. They were working on your blood, trying to find the vampire DNA in it so that we could trace who your real maker is. Unfortunately, a few nights ago, one of the witches was found murdered in her apartment.”

Zayn’s eyes widened. “What?”

Eric shrugged, “Doctor Ludwig had no idea what they were looking for by going after that witch. However, after doing a bit of inspecting, she and I found out that they had searched through the records of the tests that were in her possession.” Eric’s eyes met Zayn’s. His maker was tense.

“Zayn, whoever they were, they now know about you.” That whole sentence floored Zayn. Zayn blinked a couple of times, disbelieving.

“No,” he gasped. This was different than telling Niall, Harry, Liam and Louis. He told them because he wanted to. The people that had ransacked through his files had known about him without his consent. He felt somewhat violated and exposed.

“We have a hunch that they might be after you,” Eric continued. “I withheld this information from you because I needed to figure out what to do to keep you safe. So far, the only plan that does not involved you being chained up is staying in Fangtasia and getting bodyguards.”

Zayn blanched at that idea. “At night, Pam and I can watch over you,” Eric spoke. “However, we do not know who can guard you in the morning. Anyone on my team could turn on us. I do not trust them anymore.”

“How about you ask those four?” Pam suggested, finally including the four supernaturals who were sitting on the couch. “They saved Zayn’s ass the other day. They haven’t stopped semi-stalking him since then. We could hire them to look after Zayn because I’m pretty sure they won’t let him out of their sights.”

The four supernaturals flushed red with embarrassment when Pam called them out on their stalking. Eric seemed hesitant. If he couldn’t trust people he had known for years, how could he trust them? Pam noticed his hesitation.

“It’s the best bet we have,” she said. Eric realized that her words were true.

“Fine,” Eric said. “I want to hire them.”

…

Chaos ensued after that as Zayn protested, claiming that he did not need a bodyguard. He didn’t want to be looked after by the four supernaturals. They were all wary of him. Plus, this was embarrassing. He was a strong vampire. He could look after himself. However, Eric paid no heed to his words, quickly discussing with Liam about how their job will go.

Zayn sat in his chair, pouting slightly. His eyes wandered off to the other three supernaturals who would be his bodyguard. Harry looked pleased with the job as he also listened attentively to what Eric was saying. Louis seemed to be lost in his own land. The Halfling’s eyes landed on Niall.

Niall looked slightly uncomfortable at the preposition of becoming Zayn’s bodyguard. The half-vampire understood that. He only hoped that he might be able to gain Niall’s trust again.

After their deal was set, Eric dismissed all of them with the exception of Zayn. He said that he had a few things he needed to talk to Zayn about. Once everyone had cleared out, Zayn and Eric sat on the couch side by side.

“You shouldn’t have disrespected me in front of strangers and Pam, Zayn,” Eric said with a chiding tone. “I’m your maker and you are my progeny regardless of technicalities. You are under my command and responsibility. Your actions a few moments ago were not how my progeny should treat me.”

Zayn frowned. “Yeah but you treat me like a child. I don’t have a say in a lot of things—”

“Because you should trust me to have your best interests at heart,” Eric interjected before Zayn could continue. Zayn scowled.

“My interests or yours?” he spat. “Tell me, did you want me to be your progeny because you really wanted to or because you felt like you had an advantage over other vampires? To be the only one to have a half-vampire as a progeny. Am I just another trophy on Eric Northman’s shelf?”

Eric had to admit that Zayn was good words. The way he said it made Eric sound incredibly insincere of his actions. And maybe he was. Zayn stayed silent, waiting for an answer.

“To be completely honest, I did see you as an asset to me,” Eric admitted. Zayn sighed, his eyes downcast. Story of my life, he thought. “However,” That made Zayn focus on Eric again. “after being your maker, I realized that although you are incredibly valuable as an asset, you are also valuable as a progeny. Somehow, you wormed your way into my nonexistent heart. A feat that only Pam and my maker have achieved.”

Zayn preened under the compliment. “So I’m a good progeny?”

Eric shook his head. “ A good progeny respects their maker. You, Zayn, have been bad. Bad progenies get punished.” The atmosphere turned slightly sensual. One of Eric’s hands crept to the hem of Zayn’s—Louis’—jeans. He unbuttoned the pants and slipped a hand down Zayn’s front. The maker hummed his approval at the absence of underwear.

The older vampire palmed Zayn’s cock, making it start to harden in response. “Remember the first time we fucked, Zayn? You were a good little progeny then. Too bad I can’t have you again in the future,” Eric said casually as if they were talking about the weather. “Your boy toys probably won’t allow me to fuck you when you become theirs.”

Zayn moaned, his hands gripping the couch under him. Eric smirked at the effects of his dirty talk, speeding up the strokes of his palm on Zayn’s cock. “I bet that werewolf one would be terribly possessive. You know how werewolves are. I bet he would dick you down in front of me if it would show people that you were his.”

“I bet you want that,” he said before pulling the young Halfling on top of him. He resumed giving Zayn a handjob and his other hand snaked to Zayn’s ass. “I heard that demons are kinky. That demon one would probably make you try out things like BDSM. You want that, Zayn? Wanna be submissive for them? Want the witch and the spirit to fuck you at the same time while you’re helpless and gagging for it?”

The imagery made Zayn’s cock spurt out pre-cum. Eric used it as lube as he tightened his grip on Zayn’s cock. One of Eric’s fingers traced the rim of Zayn’s hole, feeling it flutter slightly. The Halfling tried to buck up into Eric’s hand that was stroking him and grind down on his fingers at the same time. Eric hummed.

“Greedy little vampire,” he said, amused. “No wonder you can’t have just one boy toy. You had to have four. “ The finger teasing Zayn’s rim entered him suddenly and the Halfling let out a groan. The slight burn of it entering him dry was exactly what Zayn needed. Eric’s fingers were much longer than his and more satisfying.

“Fuck,” he breathed out. The hand on his cock sped up and moved in time with the finger in his ass. One finger soon became too and they started to scissor him, stretching him out. Zayn gripped Eric’s shoulders, feeling out of breath.

“You’re a bad progeny today, Zayn,” Eric said, the pace of his fingers thrusting into Zayn was punishing as the maker probed around for his prostate. When he found it, he couldn’t help but graze it repeatedly. The maker had a malicious smirk on his face suddenly. “Your punishment is not getting to cum.”

The hand on Zayn’s cock and the finger on his ass disappeared before Zayn could even process the entirety of the sentence. Eric suddenly stood up, letting Zayn drop onto the couch. The Halfling groaned in protest.

“What?” he asked, not believing that his maker left him high and dry. Eric grinned.

“Ask your boy toys to solve it for you,” the maker said before exiting the office and leaving Zayn with a hard cock. The half-vampire let out a disgruntled sound as he straggled to his feet and made himself look presentable.

Zayn willed his hard on to go down. He did not want to walk out of there with an erection. However, his maker’s words replayed in his head, all the fantasies his maker had said was on repeat. Zayn knew that his erection was not going away that easily.

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Did I just write Eric giving Zayn a handjob? I guess I did. Sorry for that terrible smut. I can't write smut but I'll try anyway. Was the chapter okay? What do you think will happen next? How will poor Zayn convince Niall that he's harmless really? Will they find out the identity of Zayn's real maker? Who is after Zayn? Questions questions questions. And no answer. Until the next chapter. Byeee


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis wants to skip the talking and get to the fucking. Niall wants to take it slow. Zayn wants to honour a promise. Liam and Harry are refereeing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That is one weird chapter summary ahaha. How are you all? I hope you're fine. I had a hard time finding inspiration for this chapter. A few recent events regarding Zayn made my creative juices flow a little slower but I finally finished this. Hopefully it makes sense and doesn't suck as much as I think it does. BTW, OT5 is not dying on my watch! No matter what that Billboard article said.

“Nialler,” Louis looped his arm over Niall’s shoulders as soon as they were let out of the room. The blond was trying to subtly sneak out of the backdoor to get some fresh air outside. He was hoping to delay the intervention that he knew Louis wanted to have with him. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough. “C’mon, let’s go get fresh air while I talk to you.”

Considering that they had nothing better to do, Harry and Liam decided to tag along. That and the fact that they were kind of lost without Louis’ guidance. Louis was the oldest of them all. He had that aura that made him a leader. Liam did too but Liam was more comfortable in serious situations or at formal events. He kept them all in check. Louis would automatically assume (and be handed) the role of leader in situations where cunning minds were involved.

Seeing that Harry and Liam were also going to be present, Niall mentally prepared himself for whatever questions they wanted to throw at him. Louis would probably ask him vague questions, allowing him to open up with what he was comfortable with first. Then, Liam would start badgering him, getting him to state specifics and keep talking. And Harry would use his slow drawl to keep him calm when it came to difficult topics.

That was how they worked. Subconsciously, Niall wondered where Zayn would fit into their dynamics. Would he team up with Liam and pester him? Would he be like Louis and ask all the right questions that made him open up? Or would he be like Harry and provide Niall with the comfort he needed?

His musings were brought to a halt when all of them had finally stumbled outside. The back alley of Fangtasia was relatively clean unlike all the other bars they had frequented. There was a dumpster near the door. It had grime and some kind of green slime on the sides but trash wasn’t overflowing or whatnot. The air didn’t smell of decaying food. There was no litter on the ground. However, that didn’t mean that Niall was going to start kissing the ground or something.

“So, Nialler, anything you want to ‘fess up?” The question sounded harmless enough and Louis’ tone was innocent to an outsider. However, Niall knew when looking into those blue eyes that were lighter than his own that Louis was giving him a chance to come clean by himself before he decided to draw it out of him.

When Niall didn’t speak, Louis took matters into his own hands to coax the answers out of the blonde spirit. “This is about Zayn, isn’t it?” Louis asked softly. “You’re scared of him?” After hearing about what Zayn was and how his mannerisms were, even Louis felt like he was dangerous but only under certain circumstances. If they followed the instructions Eric had given them, an encounter like the one last night could be avoided.

Niall nodded. “What exactly about him that makes you scared, Niall?” Liam asked. The spirit fidgeted on the spot, uncomfortable that all of the attention was on him.

“I’m scared about his bloodthirsts and the risks that come along with him,” Niall answered truthfully.

“Niall, we can help Zayn control it,” Harry started to say. “If we follow all the advice Eric gave us, we can—“

However, Niall interrupted him, “But what if something goes wrong like last night? What if we aren’t strong enough to stop Zayn from draining us?”

“Then we knock him out like you did,” Louis’ interjection somewhat lightened up the mood. The demon continued, “But in all seriousness, last night was an accident, Niall. It was the result of carelessness. Zayn isn’t going to be like that all the time.”

“But what if?”

“Stop thinking of the ‘what if’s,” Liam protested. “They’re just your fears, Niall. They aren’t the future.”

“Well, they could be,” Niall snapped. “I like Zayn, I really do. But he’s dangerous.”

Louis let out a laugh,” And you think I’m not? Niall, we’re all dangerous. I could go into demon mode suddenly, Liam could go wolf on us. Basically the most harmless person is probably Harry here.”

“Zayn seems dangerous to you because you don’t know him,” Harry spoke. “Heck, we all don’t. We’ve only spoken to him a couple of times and got to know bits and pieces of him. That’s probably the only reason why you’re uncomfortable, Ni. It’s because you don’t know him.”

“If you got to know me better, would you trust me?” a voice was heard behind them. The four turned around and saw Zayn standing at the doorjamb, his arms around himself as if to protect him from the cold outside the bar. He looked small and fragile and vulnerable. His hazel-eyes were wide as he stared at them with somewhat of a childlike innocence. “Would all of you trust me?”

His other three boyfriends turned to look at the spirit and Niall knew it was his decision to make. He felt slightly out of his element, he was never the one asked to make a decision that could potentially impact a lot on their future. That was usually Liam’s or Louis’ call to make.

Niall looked at each of his boyfriends, trying to get his bearings and maybe a sign on what he should do. Louis’ face was neutral, Liam’s face was encouraging and Harry looked concerned. The wizard even patted his back softly. Then, the spirit moved his gaze to the half-vampire in front of them.

Zayn didn’t look as dangerous as his mind made him out to be. He looked really soft and pliant. However, at the back of his mind was a voice that was reminding him that Zayn could drain them and that he was somewhat unpredictable. Nevertheless, his boyfriends’ words came back to him that made him rethink.

Zayn was only dangerous sometimes. Not all the time, not in every situation. His boyfriends and himself would be safe in Zayn’s presence. It wasn’t his fault anyway, it was all on biology. Suddenly, Niall felt bad for blaming Zayn for something that was partially out of his control. He felt hypocritical because none of his boyfriends would condemn him for being himself.

Why should he subject Zayn to the same thing?

“Yes, we would,” Niall answered. The spirit was glad that he said that because the smile he got from Zayn was a fucking gift. The half-vampire smiled so wide that his eyes crinkled. Niall could see his cute tongue pushing up against the back of his teeth. Honestly, if making Zayn happy would result in him getting a bright smile that looked like it could cure cancer, Niall would do everything in his power to please Zayn.

Liam suddenly sniffed the air, making them look at him with confusion in their eyes. The werewolf growled suddenly, causing the others to look around and try to find whatever was setting him on edge. They were caught off guard when Liam suddenly yanked Zayn from his spot at the door and shoved him against the wall opposite the door.

Unlike the previous night, their positions were reversed. Zayn was the one against the wall and Liam was the one nosing along his neck, smelling him. “Why do you smell like someone else?” Liam asked, frustrated that Zayn didn’t smell like Zayn or him or his other boyfriends. Instead, it was this unknown scent.

Liam didn’t like it one bit. Zayn panted against him, gasping as Liam licked up the column of his neck. “Why do you smell like someone else, Zayn?”

The half-vampire shut his eyes tightly, feeling that his boner from Eric was coming back. Dammit, it took him almost fifteen minutes to get it down. A hand squeezed his ass, making Zayn’s eyes snap open.

“Answer me, little one,” Zayn groaned, knowing that he could never hear those words come out of Eric’s mouth again without thinking of how erotic it sounded when Liam said them. The half-vampire also pouted slightly, feeling irritated that he was the one being called ‘little’. He was only a few inches off of Louis and Niall.

“C’mon, Zayn, answer him,” Louis spoke from behind Liam’s shoulder. Zayn saw that Louis’ eyes were suddenly blood red. “You might get a reward if you answer truthfully.” The Halfling was momentarily distracted at the thought of getting a reward and didn’t realize that he was still silent.

Another squeeze to his ass had Zayn scrambling for an answer, “Vampires are very promiscuous creatures.” Liam hitched Zayn’s legs around his waist and kept tonguing at Zayn’s neck, hoping to leave his scent. “My maker gave me a handjob but he left me before I could finish.”

Louis cooed, “Aw, little Zaynie must have the case of the blue balls. Did you wank off?”

Zayn shook his head, “Eric said to ask you to make me cum.”

Harry swore, something that he rarely did. “So obedient,” he breathed out. “Do you need something to relieve you of the pain, baby?”

“He probably does, Haz,” Niall said, his Irish twang becoming thicker in the presence of arousal. “We could give him a blowjob. Or make him give us one. Zee looks like he could cum untouched.”

Liam smirked at Zayn, “Want to test that theory?” Zayn nodded eagerly.

Unfortunately, luck was not on their side. Someone stood in Zayn’s previous spot at the doorjamb. “Stop dry humping outside the bar,” Pam said, basically cock-blocking them all. “I didn’t know you were that kinky, Zayn. Like seriously, fucking your bodyguards? Do you like roleplaying or something?” Zayn groaned in embarrassment.

“Pam,” he whined, still held against the wall by Liam. “What do you need?”

“I need you to do your job inside. You can fuck each other like animals later.” With that, the blonde vampire disappeared back inside. Zayn sighed as he looked at the boner he was sporting. Twice in a day was punishment enough, he thought.

“Duty calls,” he said as Liam put him down. Louis winked at him.

“Don’t worry. The night is still young.”

…

Zayn couldn’t pay much attention to his work. He kept thinking about his newly hired bodyguards. Outside the bar, they had showed interest in him. Sexual interest but interest nonetheless. Niall had promised that if they got to know him better, they would trust him. Could he count the moments of ‘getting to know each other’ as dates? Was he in a relationship with them?

“Mate,” Ant waved his hand in front of Zayn’s face to get him to pay attention. The half-vampire snapped out of his thoughts and blushed under the bartender’s questioning look. “You all right? You aren’t sick or something?”

Zayn shook his head, “Just distracted.” Ant snorted.

“Then stop. We got a full-house tonight. I need help,” Ant said to him. Zayn nodded and proceeded to serve one half of the bar while Ant served the other half. They worked in sync, skillfully dodging each other to get ingredients needed for the drinks and moving in a rhythm that only they knew.

The music in the club changed to a remix of a Drake song, one that Zayn made himself. The Halfling grinned to himself before starting to sing softly and move his shoulders to the beat. Ant noticed his antics and let out a laugh. “I reckon you should tell Eric to have an open-mike night so that you can sing and perform your _spectacular_ dance moves.”

Zayn narrowed his eyes at Ant as he mixed a cocktail for a female vampire. “Oh, shut up, Ant. It’s not like you can dance any better.” Ant shrugged.

“We could have a dance-off and see who’s a better dancer,” he suggested, handing a bottle of cold beer to a patron in front of him. Zayn shook his head at Ant before smiling at the vampire who paid for her drink.

“Cool kids don’t dance,” he spoke, feigning maturity. Ant rolled his eyes.

‘You’re just afraid that you might lose,” he teased, reaching a hand over and pinching Zayn’s cheek. Zayn pushed his hand away and glared at him.

“Careful, Ant. I might go and see if Eric has something for me to do and leave you stranded alone at the bar,” Zayn joked back, rubbing his cheek. Ant suddenly grabbed Zayn’s head in a headlock and messed with his hair.

Struggling in Ant’s grip, Zayn groaned, “Stop it! You’re getting your grimy fingers all over my hair. Your hands aren’t exactly clean.” Which was true. Ant had accidentally spilled a few drinks onto his hand and hadn’t wiped it before running his hand through Zayn’s hair.

The other vampire released Zayn from the headlock and gave him a smirk, “Oops. Sorry.” However, Zayn had a feeling that Ant wasn’t sorry. Before he could think about what he was doing, Zayn’s hand grabbed a random drink on the counter and threw it at Ant, drenching him.

“Oh, it’s on!” Ant retaliated by throwing some kind of sweet beverage at Zayn that had his shirt sticking onto his torso uncomfortably.

“Fuck, we’re gonna get in so much trouble,” Zayn said, his grin betraying the seriousness of the statement. “I can’t work in this. It’s sticky and gross.”

Ant threw him a towel. “Take off your shirt and wipe yourself down,” he said before he took his own advice. After Ant was done, he simply discarded the shirt, proceeding to do his job topless. Zayn gaped at him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, shocked. Ant shrugged.

“Wearing the shirt back would just be unsanitary. Plus, this will attract the ladies, and some men, to the bar and keep the business flowing.” Ant gave Zayn a very convincing look so the half-vampire decided to throw caution out the window and followed Ant’s lead.

Zayn had a few tattoos on his torso. He had a pair of wings and lips in the middle of it. He had a block heart on his hip. One sleeve of tattoos on his forearm was completed. It had a comic-like ‘Zap’ on it with a couple of other artistic ones that Zayn liked. He was thinking of getting another sleeve done soon.

True to Ant’s words, the patrons seemed to flock to the bar, getting drinks or simply chatting (by that Zayn meant, flirting) with them. Zayn easily flirted back, giving them vague and teasing answers but never truly promising to ‘go home with them’ or ‘let them show him a good time’.

Across the room, four pairs of eyes were trained on Zayn. Well, they were supposed to be looking after him. However, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t take advantage of that task. Louis squinted at the half-vampire before crossing his arms over his chest and slumping in his chair.

“I swear to God, he’s teasing us,” Louis said, pouting slightly. Harry shrugged and took a sip of the drink in front of him.

“His shirt did seem genuinely wet though,” Harry voiced out. Louis rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Haz, he could’ve gone to the back and got another shirt,” Louis complained. Harry frowned, pondering his words slightly.

“What if he didn’t have another shirt?” Louis felt like slamming his head on the table. Harry was so dense sometimes but he loved him anyway.

The four resumed their activity of watching Zayn as he worked. Zayn’s skin seemed to be a lovely tan under the bar’s dim lighting. His lean muscles rippled under his skin, giving the four dirty fantasies of how Zayn’s muscles would move like if they were in different circumstances. And his tattoos only made him seem more enticing.

“Okay, what are we going to do?” Niall asked. His three boyfriends turned their attention to him.

“About what?” Harry asked, clueless.

“About the whole ‘getting to know each other’ thing,” Niall explained. Louis shrugged.

“To be honest, I wanted us to skip that part and get to fucking each other’s brains out. Shirtless Zayn over there isn’t helping,” Louis voiced his opinion. “However, to appease everyone and that means you, Nialler, we would try to get to know the lad.”

“How?” Niall asked.

Louis raised an eyebrow, “Take him on dates, perhaps or sit in the living room and discuss. Heck, Nialler, you can get to know him while having sex if you want to. The possibilities are endless.”

“You and your sex,” Liam mused. Louis smirked.

“You won’t be saying that when I ride you tonight,” he said, smugly. Liam groaned.

“Zayn’s coming home with us, remember?” Liam recalled his discussion with Eric earlier. “His maker said that if he goes home with us, the possibility of vampires attacking is much lesser so if the people after him were vampires, at least he would be safe. If Zayn went back to Eric’s mansion, it’s basically a free zone. Vampires can go in and out without needing permission. At our house, they’ll need permission.”

Eric had stated that tracking down whoever was after Zayn would be hard. If it was a vampire, they could have got into the witch’s house by glamouring her or they could have known here. If it was a werewolf, there should be a scent. Whoever had done the crime was slick.

“Then how did we bring Zayn in last night? Isn’t something supposed to stop him?” Niall asked. Liam shrugged.

“We’ll have to ask him about that,” Liam answered. Louis nodded.

“Remember to ask him if he wants to have an orgy with us, too. I don’t want him to feel left out tonight. Two times being cock-blocked isn’t a nice feeling,” Louis said. Liam almost face-palmed.

“We can’t just ask him to have sex with us,” he protested. “We’re still practically strangers.”

Louis’ eyebrows furrowed. “What difference does it make? Liam, a few moments ago, you went alpha wolf on him just because he smelled different. Basically all of us talked dirty to him. He liked it. If you ask him to have sex with us, he’ll probably say yes.”

Harry nodded in agreement, “True.”

“But he isn’t our boyfriend,” Liam said, weakly. Louis rolled his eyes in irritation.

“He will be soon. So why not get a sneak preview of what’s it like to be with him?” Louis asked, nonchalant. Niall bit his lip.

“Isn’t that taking advantage of him?” the spirit asked.

“Not if we tell him exactly what our intentions are,” Louis seemed to have an answer for everything.

“So we want to be with him if he’s good in the sack?” Harry asked, an incredulous look in his eyes. He ran a hand through his luscious curls. Louis seemed to consider his words.

“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds bad,” he stated. “ But that’s not entirely the point. I’m just saying that if we’re tasked with looking after him, we should look after him thoroughly. If it will help your conscience, we can ask him where we stand before the sex.”

“Assuming that he’ll want the sex,” Niall pointed out. Louis scoffed.

“Nialler, you wound me,” the demon said, putting a hand to his chest dramatically. “No one can resist this!” The demon then gestured to himself and that made his boyfriends laugh.

“What if he really wants do the whole ‘get to know each other’ thing before sex?” Niall asked.

“Then we back off. We won’t do anything he doesn’t want to. We’ll convince him to trust us and he’ll convince us to trust him,” Liam said thoughtfully. “Though I doubt he’ll have much work with us. We’re practically infatuated with him and we only need reassurance.”

“And if his level of infatuation with us is as much as we are with him, we won’t have much work either,” Harry said. With that. The four resumed their job and watched Zayn as he worked.

…

“Finally, we’re home,” Liam said, parking the car and undoing his seatbelt. Zayn sat in the backseat in between Niall and Harry. He was wearing a new shirt that was one of Eric’s. When Pam had noticed that he and Ant were doing their jobs shirtless, she made them get spare ones because it was against the dress code. When Zayn pointed out that the vampire strippers at the bar were also not following the code, she gave him the stink-eye.

“If you want to be a stripper so much, I’ll let Eric know to give you a new job,” she had said before sauntering away to oversea other things. Zayn didn’t know whether she was joking or if it was a promise.

The Halfling waited for Harry or Niall to get out first so that he would have a way out. When all of them got out the car and went into the house, Zayn stood awkwardly at the door. Liam stopped when he noticed that Zayn wasn’t with them.

“You have to invite me in,” the half-vampire said, slightly flushed at the cheeks. Liam nodded.

“Zayn, will you please come in?” Zayn walked in without any difficulty after that.

“How is it that we could bring you in last night without needing permission?” Louis asked. Zayn shrugged.

“Must be the work of my human half,” Zayn offered as an explanation. He wasn’t sure of the specifics but he assumed that when he was unconscious, his human half took over. However, when he thought about it, it seemed unlikely because both halves of him were so intermixed with one another. He would hav eto ask Doctor Ludwig the next time he saw her.

A hand grabbed his and started dragging him towards the stairs. It was Louis. “Where are we going?” the half-vampire asked. Louis gave him a devilish grin.

“To have sex!” he said bluntly. Zayn dug his heels into the floor to stop himself from moving and yanked his hand from Louis’ grip. When the demon looked at him confused, Zayn turned his gaze to his feet in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his neck.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked after witnessing Louis get rejected. If it weren’t for the concerned look on Louis’ face, Harry would have laughed because this was the first time someone rejected Louis.

“I really want to have sex,” Zayn spoke slowly. “But I feel like we’re taking this too fast. I thought the order was: get to know each other, be boyfriends and then make love. I really want to get to know you and let you know me before we do anything intimate.”

Liam tucked Zayn under his side. “It’s all right, love,” he reassured Zayn. “I know that you’re looking out for us and making sure we’re comfortable with you. We want the same for you, yeah? Don’t hesitate to tell us if you’re unsure of anything.”

With that, Zayn nodded. He was glad that they understood. He didn’t want to rush anything and risk the boys going cautious or getting afraid of him again. Like Niall had. Speaking of the spirit, Niall showed Zayn to his room, an empty one next to the one they shared as a foursome. When Zayn opened his mouth to thank him, Niall pressed his lips to Zayn’s.

“I’m sorry for how I acted,” the spirit apologized. “I was acting like a dick and a hypocrite because I forgot that we’re supernaturals and all supernaturals can be dangerous under certain situations. I shouldn’t have held an accident against you. I promise that once we get to know each other, I’ll treat you like you deserve to be.”

Zayn smiled at that. “I forgive you, Niall. I was never mad at you. I understood why you had felt that way. It’s all right.” With that, Niall nodded and bid Zayn a goodnight before he joined his boyfriends in the next room.

When he stepped into their room, Niall realized that Louis was keeping his promise to Liam. The demon was busy bouncing on Liam’s cock to notice him walk in. Liam let out grunts of pleasure as Louis grinded his hips down on his cock. Louis’ mouth was close to Liam’s ear, probably whispering other sweet promises.

Turned on, Niall bit his lip and noticed his other boyfriend watching him carefully, sitting on the bed naked. Standing up, Harry approached Niall and started kissing his neck.

“Everything okay?” the wizard asked, starting to undress the spirit. Niall nodded.

“Wonderful,” he answered sincerely. Harry grinned and dragged him to the bed to have a round of steamy hot sex.

And if anyone asked, Zayn _totally_ didn’t wank off to the sounds of their moans next door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys understood that last bit right? Another attempt at a bit of smut by me. I might die if I have to write a full smut scene but I guess there's a first time for everything. Drop me a kudos and a comment on what you think might happen. If y'all wanna find me on tumblr or instagram, you can ask me. I'm a fun person (I like to think that I am). We can do a little bonding or discuss headcanons or whatnot.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE and bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In honour of Zayn's 23rd birthday, I decided to update. And also because ZeeThorn is such a sweetheart. This chapter may take a few unexpected turns but it's all good fam. Enjoy them bonding the fuck out of each other.

“You’re asking me permission to go on a date?” Eric asked slowly. He raised an eyebrow at his adopted progeny who was currently shifting from foot to foot in front of him. They were standing in the hallway that connected Eric’s office to the bar. Eric removed his gaze from his progeny and instead went to look at the four bodyguards he had assigned to protect Zayn.

“Did they finally man up and ask you out?” he asked, surprised. Zayn shook his head.

“No, I’m going to ask them out,” the young Halfling explained. Since the boys wanted to get to know him, Zayn figured that he should be the one to organize their date and whatnot. He had already figured out which restaurant to take them to and what they would be conversing about. He just hadn’t figured out how to ask them out yet but he will.

“Impressive,” Eric nodded approvingly. “When’s the date?”

“Tomorrow night,” Zayn answered. Eric pursed his lips.

“You know, I told them to be your bodyguards not because I wanted you to pursue them or vice versa. This could be dangerous, Zayn. They might get distracted on the job,” Eric advised. Zayn sighed heavily.

“I know, I know but I really like them and they like me too and they said they might trust me again if they got to know me,” the Halfling played with his fingers as he explained, slightly rambling but Eric didn’t mind.

“They’re that important to you?” Eric asked. Zayn nodded his head fervently. The older vampire ran a hand through his hair. So many things could go wrong of Zayn had a relationship but then, since when did Eric Northman fear risks? Although the older vampire was somewhat jealous that the four bodyguards had managed to get under Zayn’s skin so fast and so easily, he decided that it was time to let Zayn do his own thing.

“All right,” Eric agreed, causing Zayn to give him a bright smile. “But you’ll have to do extra work for the rest of the week.” Eric had a feeling that Zayn wasn’t really listening to the second part of what he said but that was okay. He’ll just remind Zayn about it later.

The older vampire decided that it was time to get back to his job. He turned to walk to his office but suddenly remembered something, “Oh, if everything goes well, you can invite them to attend the vampire ball I have to host this weekend. They can be your plus one; in this case, your plus four.”

Zayn decided that the invitation to the vampire ball could wait as he wasn’t even in a relationship with Harry, Louis, Niall and Liam yet. The Halfling decided to go book the restaurant for the date. After getting some advice from Pam, he settled on taking them to a fancy English restaurant because Italian and French cuisine had too much garlic for him and at least the English would be somewhat more merciful.

As soon as he was done with the reservations, Zayn quickly moved to his station behind the bar to help Ant. The other vampire raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the Halfling. “Where have you been?” he asked. He observed Zayn’s hands, watching them shake slightly as he took out a few glasses from the cupboard and poured wine in them.

“I’ve been planning a date,” Zayn answered truthfully, passing the glasses of wine to a patron. If he didn’t, Ant would know what was up and he didn’t want to face that. Ant nodded slowly.

“Who with?” he asked. Zayn gave him a tiny smile.

“My bodyguards,” was his answer and Ant laughed. He relaxed when he realized that most of the patrons had been served and that they could have a bit of a breather.

“Fucking on the job, you are,” he gave Zayn a small shove. “You’re insatiable. Ever since getting the first taste of a dick, you’ve been very busy.” The Halfling retaliated by shoving him back. “When did you ask them?”

Zayn gasped, “Fuck, I forgot about that part.”

Ant looked amused, “Zayn, I’m pretty sure a date means that both parties have to agree to it. If you were planning on going on a date with yourself, then that’s just sad.”

Zayn scoffed, “Yeah, you should know. You haven’t been on one in ages.”

Ant huffed, “And how do you know that? I’m quite popular with ladies and lads alike. Just because I don’t tell you that I’m going on a date, it doesn’t mean I am not.”

The Halfling rolled his eyes, “We both know that that isn’t how you work.” Ant seemed to think about his statement before he nodded.

“Touche, my friend.” Then Ant redirected them to the problem at hand. “So, now’s a good time as ever to go ask them out.”

“What?” Zayn asked wide-eyed, quickly glancing to the table where the four supernaturals had sat, each with a drink in front of them to help blend in with the crowd. They were talking lightly amongst themselves. Zayn couldn’t help but observe how they interacted once again. This morning he had already gotten a sneak peek of what kind of action he would be getting if he was in a relationship with them.

Earlier today, Zayn had woken up in the morning and joined them for breakfast. Harry was the only one in the kitchen at the time. He was busy cooking breakfast and he said that Liam had gone out for a jog and would be back soon. So Zayn and Harry lightly conversed as the wizard whipped up a few dishes.

After a few moments, one by one, the others trickled into the kitchen. The boyfriends all gave each other a kiss on the mouth and they gave Zayn a kiss on the cheek. Eating together with them was rather lively. Liam was focused on scrolling through his phone, basically reading the virtual version of the newspaper with a cup of coffee near him. Niall was scarfing down as much food as he was allowed.

Louis was pouting petulantly as Harry served him a kale smoothie. The wizard said that Louis needed to eat more healthily. And Louis thought he was calling the demon fat. That led to Liam having to look up from his reading and giving Louis the ‘humour him for once’ talk. Zayn giggled slightly at how Louis threatened to get Harry to trade Liam’s coffee with a Kale smoothie too.

Zayn didn’t expect them to hear his giggle, much less coo at how cute he was. It was an unfamiliar feeling to have them dote over him but it was welcomed. After years of feeling like an outcast, a little attention on him was very much appreciated. He wanted to feel wanted and they made him feel like that.

“C’mon, Zayn, go ask them out,” Ant said, snapping the Halfling out of his reverie. Zayn flailed around slightly, starting to panic.

“What do I say? What if they don’t want to? What if they reject me?” he started asking, more to himself than Ant but the other vampire just grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

“Get a grip, Zayn. I’ve seen you murder, I’ve seen you kill without batting an eye. This is nothing. Now go out there and charm their asses off,” Ant encouraged him. Zayn calmed down considerably. The Halfling nodded to himself.

“I can do this,” he tried to convince himself with some positive words as he walked out from behind the bar. Ant watched him go with a soft look in his eyes. It seemed like only yesterday when Eric brought in the skittish little half-vampire. Now he’s all grown up.

…

“Hey,” Niall said, greeting Zayn once the half-vampire approached their table. This caused the other three to stop talking and look at Zayn. The Halfling started to get nervous under their stares. “What’s up?” Niall asked, trying to ease him a bit.

“I have something to ask you guys,” Zayn said, his voice lowered slightly and hesitant. His eyes looked at each of their faces but didn’t stay on one too long before he looked down at his hands. Niall noticed that Zayn had a lot of nervous ticks. The Halfling would shift on his feet or play with his fingers or rub the back of his neck or look at them for only a—

Yeah, basically Niall had concluded that Zayn had a lot of nervous ticks. Not that he was a stalker who observed Zayn a lot or anything. He just _picked up_ on them.

“What is it, Zee?” Harry asked, giving Zayn a dimpled smile that seemed to help the half-vampire relax. The nickname he gave Zayn didn’t go unnoticed by the others and they added that to their list alongside Zaynie and little one (on Liam’s part).

The half-vampire took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, “I want to ask all of you out on a date tomorrow night.”

That was one of the things that they had least expected Zayn to ask. They thought that maybe they would be the ones doing the asking out but Zayn proved them wrong and stunned them into silence. The half-vampire seemed to take their silence as rejection.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Zayn started to say, looking at his shoes in embarrassment. _Of course they wouldn’t say yes, what were you thinking?_ “I can just cancel the reservations, no big deal—“

“Zayn, stop,” Liam quickly put the half-vampire’s rambling to a halt. “Why would you ever think that we didn’t want to? Of course we want to go out with you.”

Zayn smiled at him, relief shone in his hazel-coloured eyes. “Okay,” he breathed out, sounding as if he was speaking more to himself than them. “Okay.” He said again, sounding a little surer. “Okay.” The half-vampire repeated the word again, this time with more excitement.

Louis laughed, “Okay, Zayn. We get it, you’re happy.” The excitement vanished of Zayn’s face and the half-vampire bit his lip.

“Sorry,” he apologized. Louis quickly went to make a correction.

“No need to apologize,” he said. “I wasn’t scolding you. You look very cute when you’re happy.” Zayn’s cheeks turned red at the compliment and lads smiled at him.

“I better get back to work,” Zayn said, glancing behind him to look at Ant. He was glad he did because he managed to catch sight of Ant trying to balance a few cups in his hands only to have them falling and successfully spilling the drinks as he tried to serve the patrons of the bar.

The first thing that came to Zayn’s mind was that the moment was totally blackmail material. The second thing was the feeling of guilt because he should have been there and helping Ant out instead of asking his bodyguards on a date. The third thing was the inkling that Ant didn’t want to call out to him for help because he didn’t want to spoil the moment between Zayn and the four other lads.

The half-vampire didn’t know whether to smile at his thoughtfulness or to shake his head at how stubborn his friend was being. Nevertheless, he left the lads at the table and hurried to help Ant out.

“You idiot,” Zayn berated him. “Call out for me next time, yeah?”

“You were having a cutesy moment with your beaus that I didn’t have the heart to end it, okay?” Ant retorted. Zayn rolled his eyes.

“You don’t even have a heart, a working one that is,” the Halfling answered back.

“Excuse you, I got a fire for a heart. I am passionate,” Ant glared at Zayn playfully. The Halfling sighed in exasperation, which caused Ant to ask, “Too much?” and Zayn to nod wholeheartedly.

…

Zayn was a mess the night after. He kept ringing the restaurant to make sure that his name was still registered under reservations. His frequent calls were bothering the restaurant staff to the point that they threatened to take his name off the list if he called them once again. That was enough to make Zayn stop calling them.

After that, he called Pam to ask for advice on what he should wear. Pam spent about ten minutes telling him what _not_ to wear instead of what he should wear before she hung up and ignored his calls. Zayn kind of panicked when he realized that he had to figure this out by himself but he stayed calm. The boys had lent him a few clothes for the week before they could go to Eric’s mansion and get him his own clothes.

Zayn would have to make do with what he had. The half-vampire dressed casually but not too casually. He dressed fancy enough to be approved by the restaurant’s dress code yet casual enough for him to be comfortable. His hair was getting quite long but not too long that he had to tie it back so he merely combed his hair and made sure that it didn’t look like a mess.

His honey-coloured eyes kept flitting to the clock, worried that he might be taking too long. The reservation was at 7 pm and it was only 6:45 which made him nervous because according to the schedule in his head, they should be in the car already and on their way to the restaurant.

Grabbing his phone and wallet, Zayn rushed out of his room. He heard chatter coming from the living room and he felt thankful because that meant everyone was ready. As soon as he walked in, the voices fell silent and Zayn had four pairs of eyes staring at him, completely gobsmacked.

All the boys were sitting on the couch, eyeing Zayn. Louis’ eyes scanned him from head to toe before letting out an appreciative whistle. “You clean up good,” he complimented. Zayn grinned.

“Thanks, you guys look amazing too,” Zayn complimented back. And it was true.

For some reason, they all wore black. Niall wore a simple long-sleeved black shirt that hugged his torso. He was also wearing a pair of black skinny jeans. Liam was wearing a blazer and had a white shirt underneath. Harry wore the same as Liam only his white shirt had a bit of brown on it and three buttons were undone. Louis had worn a black blazer with a black shirt.

The demon hopped out of his seat and turned to let Zayn see his backside. “I know I look amazing. I wasn’t given this ass for nothing,” Louis said before wiggling and slapping his own ass.

Zayn bit his lip and nodded, his eyes still on Louis’ ass. Niall let out a laugh. “Oi, Lou, you’ve got him mesmerized.”

Knowing that he had been caught staring, Zayn quickly averted his eyes and scratched the back of his neck. He felt his cheeks heat up as the lads laughed at him. Liam took pity on him and stood up from the couch.

“Right, lads, let’s go,” he said, ordering them to get up and into the car. Zayn sat in the middle between Niall and Louis while Harry rode shotgun with Liam in the driver’s seat.

“Where to, Zayn?” Liam asked. Zayn pulled up the restaurant’s name on his phone.

“Do you know where _His Royal Majesty_ is?” Zayn asked back. Harry turned suddenly in his seat with a giddy grin on his face.

“ _His Royal Majesty_? We’re going there?” He asked, eyes bright with happiness. When Zayn nodded, he did a clapped excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to go there,” he explained to Zayn. Then, his smile vanished, “But Louis always said that that place was full of rich pompous idiots.”

Louis frowned, “I did not say that, Harry. What I said was, _‘that place was full of filthy rich motherfuckers who don’t give a shit about anyone else and fucking spend their money on shit they won’t eat just to flaunt it around.’_ Please don’t sugarcoat anything. Zayn is not a baby. He understands just fine.”

Harry gave Zayn an apologetic look. Zayn shifted in his seat. “If you don’t like that place, we can go somewhere else,” he suggested. Louis shushed him.

“For you, I will endure being in the presence of those people,” Louis said, trying to reassure Zayn that he was fine with the restaurant choice. Zayn still looked hesitant though but he accepted Louis’ words.

“How come you never endure it for me?” Harry whined.

Louis scoffed, “I endure your kale smoothies. Get rid of them and we can eat at _His Royal Majesty_ all the fucking time.” Harry gasped out loud.

“Deal!” he said, causing Louis to sputter.

“What? I wasn’t serious!” the demon protested. Harry grinned at him.

“But, I was,” the wizard spoke in a sing-song voice. Niall laughed at Louis’ shocked expression and Liam looked at the demon through the rearview mirror.

“You’re done for, Lou,” Niall said, shaking his head in amusement. Zayn put a hand on Louis’ knee as if trying to console him. Louis gave him a grateful look.

…

 

When they arrived at _His Royal Majesty_ , the five supernaturals managed to get in without a hitch. Zayn started to relax, the tension escaping his body when he was sure that everything was going according to plan. They sat down at their reserved table and started ordering.

Once the waiter had gone, the five sat in silence, waiting for one of them to start talking. Since it was a ‘get to know’ thing, Zayn decided that he should begin the conversation. “So, how did you guys get into a relationship with one another?” Zayn asked. It seemed like a better conversation starter than ‘the weather’s nice’ considering the fact that they were in a roofed establishment.

Liam perked up, “Well, we’re all childhood friends, yeah? And we all grew up together and were head over heels for each other but we didn’t know. So, one day, I snogged the shit out of Louis—“

“It was a good snog,” Louis interrupted, sighing dreamily. Liam chuckled.

“—right, it was good. Anyway, we told Harry and Niall that we were in a relationship and a week later, they were in one too. After like pining for each other and realizing that we like more than one person, we got together and—“

“—shagged,” Niall interjected, trying to help. Liam frowned.

“I was gonna say discussed our feelings but that was accurate too,” Harry spoke in his slow drawl. Liam nodded and leaned back in his seat, satisfied.

“So that was our story,” Liam concluded. “What about yours? How did you meet Eric and Pam?” Zayn nodded, that was a fair exchange.

Just as the half-vampire was about to start the tale of how the infamous Eric Northman came to his town for a vampire-human diplomatic party, a waiter passed by with a plate of garlic bread, causing Zayn to sneeze violently. A worried Harry passed him a tissue.

“You all right?” he asked. Zayn dabbed his nose and nodded.

“Yeah, my nose is just sensitive to garlic,” Zayn replied.

“Is that a vampire thing?” Louis questioned curiously. The Halfling shook his head.

“Nah, just me,” he said, sniffling slightly.

“Remind me to never cook stuff with garlic in it,” Harry commented, taking note of the new information Zayn told them.

When their food arrived, they all dug in. The food was delicious. When Louis voiced that out, Harry sent him a look that said, ‘I told you so’ which caused the demon to try to kick Harry’s leg under the table. Unfortunately, Harry was sitting further away from Louis so Louis’ foot didn’t reach his shin. The wizard looked at him smugly.

They talked about a lot of things and found out that they shared common interests. For example, Liam and Zayn both loved superheroes and were comic geeks; Louis and Zayn had a thing for getting tattoos as well as doing pranks; Harry and Zayn enjoyed artistic things and Niall and Zayn bonded over what alcoholic drink they could make.

“I have something to ask,” Zayn said suddenly.

“It’s not a second date is it? We aren’t even done with the first one,” Louis teased. Zayn give him a timid smile.

“I want you guys to be my dates to a vampire ball that my maker’s having this weekend,” Zayn explained. “You guys don’t have to be pressured to go or anything. You can decline if you want, I won’t mind.”

Louis gasped, clearly offended. “Of course we’ll be there. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

Zayn smiled shyly, “Well, okay then.”

Just then, the unexpected happened. A waiter was passing by with a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine. At the same time, a man stood up from his seat and headed straight to the waiter. They intersected right beside Zayn. The man grabbed the spaghetti and the wine and dumped it all over Zayn’s head.

This caused the whole restaurant to go into commotion as the waiter tried to rectify the situation and the security guards pulled the man away from their table. Meanwhile, a few customers had their phones out, recording the whole thing. “Fucking terrorist,” the man spat at Zayn, struggling to get away from security with anger in his eyes.

Zayn was upset. There was a reason why he hung out at Fangtasia a lot and usually spent his time inside. In Fangtasia, no one discriminated him for his skin colour. However, there was nothing Zayn could do against the man. If he retaliated, they would sure put the blame on him. Instead, the half-vampire ran a hand through his hair, trying to get the clumps of spaghetti out.

The manager of _His Royal Majesty_ rushed to his aid with a towel. He helped Zayn clean up and apologized a lot. Zayn simply shrugged. His night was ruined. His date was ruined. Everything was ruined. Because of the events, the manager said that their meals were on the house. Zayn thanked him but his appetite was ruined.

The other boys were livid. How dare someone treat Zayn like that. They left the restaurant and piled into the car. Zayn slumped in his seat, defeated and tired. He didn’t speak a word even when they arrived at their house.

“Babe, you all right?” Louis asked, terribly concerned. Zayn sighed.

“Sorry for ruining your night,” Zayn said, sounding apologetic and guilty. Niall scowled.

“It wasn’t your fault, Zee. It was that asshole’s fault,” the blonde spirit said, looking at the dirty clothes Zayn was in. He tugged Zayn upstairs. “Let’s get you all cleaned up.” Once the two were out of earshot, Louis let out a heavy sigh.

“I honestly feel awful for him,” the demon said, sitting down on the couch. “I can’t believe that someone would just go up to him and dump food all over him before saying that despicable word.”

Liam sat down next to him. “I’m proud of Zayn though. He didn’t retaliate and make the situation worse.” Harry joined them on the couch.

“But that’s the thing. He looked like he accepted it. Like it was a normal thing and that isn’t right,” the wizard protested. They all sat on the couch miserably until Zayn and Niall stumbled in, already in sleepwear. Zayn was wearing a large sweater and a pair of sweatpants. Niall was in a tank top and shorts.

“Wanna have a Batman marathon?” Liam asked, hoping to cheer Zayn up. The half-vampire rubbed at his eyes and nodded. The three on the couch got up to get changed while Niall set up the movie and Zayn lied down on the couch.

The boys took up residence on the floor or other seats. They didn’t want to disturb Zayn. When all of them were ready, the movie was started. They didn’t even make it halfway through the movie before Zayn fell asleep. The boys noticed and they quietly shut the television off before cleaning everything up. Then they took him upstairs.

The boys laid him down in the center of their bed before taking up places by his side. There was no way that after tonight they were going to let him sleep alone. He was their boyfriend now, no matter how bad the first date went. They would be with him through thick and thin.

Zayn shifted slightly and allowed himself to be coddled in the middle of the four boys without him even realizing it. The boys all kissed him on the forehead before falling asleep, feeling that for once they were complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated writing the part where that asshole said that Zayn was a terrorist. I hated it so bad and it almost made tears come to my eyes. Also, If I Could Fly decided to play during that last scene and I don't know why the universe is doing this to me. If you guys recognised the Night Changes ref, good for you. Their outfits were the ones they wore during Jimmy Fallon or something, before they took the cutest selfie ever. Next chapter's gonna be a rollercoaster. Oh and I noticed that I write Zayn as a hot, sexy character one minute and then write him adorably cute and nervous and shy the next. What is wrong with me? Anyways, comment below and let's all kill that asshole in our sleep. Don't forget about all the Zianourry moments in this chapter ahhhh. Oh and Zeric and Zant at the beginning aha


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to get a little deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this yesterday but I felt like it would be too soon. Anyway, here I am today with another chapter. There's a voice in my head that's nagging me and saying that I might have messed up the storyline I have in my head at some point but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'm one of those people that like to wing it and write down something according to the story in my head instead of writing it down in a book and making sure that no hiccups happen. Well, when I'm an author one day, I'll learn. Anyway, let us get reading!

Zayn woke up that morning feeling strangely warm. Still in the throes of sleep, he tried to stretch his arms but they were pinned to his sides. A sudden rush of panic caused him to be more awake and alert. The memories of what happened the night before came back to him and for a second, he thought that the man from the restaurant had done worse than just throw a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine on him. However, the huffs of air he felt on his neck made him calm down.

The half-vampire moved his head slightly to see Niall’s head tucked into the crook of his neck. The spirit had an arm curled around Zayn’s left arm and Niall’s left hand was on Zayn’s chest. One of Niall’s legs was in between Zayn’s, causing a part of Niall’s body to be on top of his. Wiggling his hand around, Zayn realized that from the position of his hand, it was directly underneath Niall’s crotch.

The Halfling’s face turned red as he realized that not only was Zayn’s hand under Niall’s cock but apparently, Niall was having a case of morning wood. Zayn’s wriggling caused Niall’s breath to hitch and the spirit let out a low moan before humping Zayn’s hand. Zayn tensed at the awkward situation he was caught in. Niall’s shorts left nothing to the imagination and Zayn could feel the outline of the spirit’s very hard (and very big) cock.

Zayn couldn’t help himself as he became aroused and his cock twitched. The Halfling bit his lip as Niall started to rub his hard-on against Zayn’s hand in his sleep. Zayn started to breathe a little heavier as he felt Niall’s shorts become wetter with precum. The half-vampire squirmed slightly, itching to get a hand down his pants and wank off.

His prayers seemed to be answered when a hand slipped itself down his sweatpants and wrapped around his cock. But it wasn’t his though. Zayn looked to the right and saw Liam’s brown eyes staring at him. “Is this okay?” the werewolf asked him, his voice sounding rough from sleep. Then, he made a surprised noise at a discovery.

“You went commando? It’s like you were expecting this to happen, you naughty little boy.” Zayn’s voice was stuck in his throat so he could only nod as a way to answer Liam’s first question. Liam’s eyes flickered down to where Niall was humping Zayn’s hand.

“He’s at it again,” Liam mused, his eyes filled with a fond look. He looked straight into Zayn’s eyes. “He always does that.” He tightened his grip on Zayn’s cock before stroking slowly.

“He’s having a wet dream, I’ll bet,” the werewolf continued, circling the head of Zayn’s cock and adding more pressure to his tugging. “Probably dreaming about fucking you.” Beads of precum started leaking from Zayn’s cock and Liam grinned. “I knew you liked dirty talk. Can’t get enough of it, can you?”

The werewolf thumbed Zayn’s slit before using his precum as lube and starting to stroke faster. The half-vampire arched his back slightly at the sensation and panted. “Bet you would like us to fuck you,” Liam went back to talking. “I bet you’d like us to go hard and fast, huh? Louis would give you that. He would hold both your hands above your head and give it to you raw. He likes to watch people’s faces when they cum.”

The imagery that formed in Zayn’s head caused him to groan and clench his hands slightly. His move caused the hand under Niall to brush against Niall’s cock and give him the friction the spirit needed. Niall moaned and started humping faster, still asleep.

“And after Louis, it would be Harry. He’d probably turn you over and make you go on all fours. And then he would fuck you, slow but hard. He’d make you feel every inch of him,” Liam enunciated those few last words with rough strokes on Zayn’s cock which caused the Halfling to mewl and buck up into his hand. “ When he gets close, he’ll start tugging on your hair. The thing about Harry is that he will pull out of you and come on your back.”

“Are you dirty-talking to Zayn again?” Louis asked from behind Liam. The demon hooked his chin over Liam’s shoulder and watched. His eyes became bright when he saw the scene that was unfolding. A catlike grin spread on his face as he took note of Zayn’s blissed-out expression and Niall humping Zayn’s hand.

“My, my, what a situation to be in,” he cooed sweetly. Liam focused on wanking Zayn off as Louis took over the dirty talk. “I bet Liam didn’t tell you what Niall and him would have done if they were to fuck you, hm? Well, Niall would make you sit on his lap and fuck yourself down on him. He would slap your ass and praise you for the hard work you do.”

One of Louis’ hands reached out from behind Liam to push Zayn’s hair back from where it was sticking to the half-vampire’s forehead. Zayn was all sweaty as he let out small pants, whimpers and groans as Liam’s strokes sped up. The sound was music to Louis’ ears.

Just as Louis was about to continue, Niall let out a low groan as he tensed suddenly and stopped moving. Louis chuckled. “I guess Niall’s satisfied now,” he mused. He quickly got back to the subject at hand, “Liam would make you beg for it, Zayn. Whatever you beg for, he’ll give it to you _if_ he feels like you’ve been a good boy.”

Zayn moaned loudly at that. “Do you want to be a good boy, Zayn? Want to be good for Liam and the rest of us?”

Zayn nodded fervently. “Y-yeah,” he panted out, thrusting up into Liam’s grip when the werewolf flicked his wrist and made him feel so fucking good. “Wanna be good. “

Louis nodded approvingly, “We can start now. All you have to do is _cum_.” With that, Zayn let out a cry as he reached his peak. Liam was still stroking his cock, making the half-vampire twitch and squirm from oversensitivity. “Good boy,” Louis complimented, stroking his hair. He watched as Zayn preened at the appraisal.

Liam gave Zayn’s cock a final tug before pulling his hand out of Zayn’s sweatpants. “You’re a messy one,” the werewolf said, holding up his hand that was dirtied with Zayn’s cum. Liam was about to wipe it on Zayn’s sweatpants but Louis pulled the hand back and licked it clean.

“Don’t waste perfectly good cum, Li,” Louis scolded him. The werewolf only rolled his eyes in response.

The trio heard a yawn come from Niall and the blond sat up, running a hand over his face and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked very content and relaxed. “Had a good dream?” Louis teased. The spirit nodded without meaning to.

Another yawn made them look to Harry. The wizard stretched and scratched his stomach slightly. “Oh, you’re all awake,” Harry said, surprised. His gaze moved to each of their faces, taking note of Zayn’s blissed-out one, Niall’s satisfied one, Louis’ amused one and Liam’s smug one.

“I missed something, didn’t I?”

…

“Niall, get back here!” Harry yelled out, coming out of the kitchen as he looked around frantically. He was making a potion and was reaching for an ingredient when suddenly said ingredient flew away from him. Only one person had the ability to be invisible and that was Niall.

The wizard spotted the levitating ingredient as it stayed frozen in mid air and chased after it. “Give it back!” Harry shouted as he watched it drift away from him. “I swear to God, if you don’t hand it over, I’m making you eat frog legs for the next few days.”

A rambunctious laugh could be heard as Niall picked up speed and ran away from Harry. His threat had fallen on deaf ears because Harry was the sweet one, he would never torture Niall that way. Niall materialized and tantalized the bottled ingredient a few feet away from Harry.

“C’mon, Haz, you know you want it,” Niall teased, grinning at the frustrated expression on Harry’s face. He watched Harry’s every move, ready to run away if he saw a muscle even do something as slight as a twitch. Harry pursed his lips and fumed.

Suddenly, a shape quickly moved around past Niall and took the ingredient out of Niall’s grip, causing the spirit to let out an indignant ‘hey’ in protest. The shape stopped in front of Harry and both supernaturals could see that it was Zayn.

“Here,” Zayn gave Harry the bottle and the wizard gave him a grateful smile in return.

“Thank you, Zayn,” as if it was the most natural thing in the world, Harry leaned in and gave Zayn a kiss on the lips which caused the half-vampire to freeze as he wasn’t expecting that. In fact, Zayn was worried that he might get in trouble with Harry’s other boyfriends. Although Liam gave him a handjob that morning, they had not discussed their relationship together.

“Was that okay?” Harry asked, concerned at the sight of Zayn’s eyebrows furrowing and how he nervously bit his lip.

“I should be asking you that question,” Zayn said, frowning slightly. “Why are you kissing me? We aren’t boyfriends and it is wrong to be doing this.”

Niall moved forward and slung an arm around Zayn’s shoulders, “Au contraire, Zaynie. We have all decided that you are our boyfriend now, if that’s okay with you by the way. That means we have access to kiss you at any time.” Niall proved his point by kissing Zayn before the half-vampire could open his mouth and utter another word.

When they pulled away, Zayn was slightly breathless and that caused Niall to smirk smugly. “You want to be my boyfriends even after last night happened?” he asked, sounding small and vulnerable. Harry gently nudged his chin up.

“Hey, what happened last night was out of your control. We’re not going to blame you for the actions of an ignorant man. You’re nothing like what he said. You’re special,” Harry said softly, making sure that Zayn saw how sincere he was being. The half-vampire nodded slowly.

“All right,” was his response. It sounded accepting so that was a start.

…

“Mr. Northman, could we have a word with you?” Liam asked the vampire politely. Eric surveyed the room. Ant was behind the bar, Pam was keeping an eye on things and Zayn was currently taking his place at the throne. When Eric said extra work, it meant being eye candy. The vampire had yet to hear about the date night. When he had subtly asked Zayn, the Halfling seemed to deflect.

Maybe Eric could get it out of Zayn’s bodyguard instead. With how affectionate they had been earlier, Eric would say that the date must have been a success but his instincts said otherwise. Giving the bar a final look and deciding that Fangtasia wasn’t in dire need of his attention, the blond vampire thought that he could spare a moment or two to speak with the bodyguards.

“How was the date, boys?” Eric asked them as he led them to his office. Liam strode authoritatively alongside him.

“That’s exactly what we wanted to talk about,” the werewolf said. They all piled into Eric’s office and started the serious discussion. “The date was fantastic. Zayn was great to us, he brought us to a nice restaurant and treated us to delicious food—“

“But some asshole decided to ruin it by dumping food on him and calling him a fucking terrorist,” Louis interjected. Eric sat behind his desk, his face annoyed and his hands clenched.

“That’s happened a few times before,” the vampire told them. “Only, when they did that, I had them punished for disrespecting my progeny. Too bad I wasn’t there last night. Pretty sure I would have seen red.”

“The one who attacked him last night was a human,” Niall explained. “He had no idea that Zayn was a vampire.” Eric nodded.

“Thank God, he didn’t. If he did, there’s no telling what he would have done to Zayn,” Eric responded. “ There are hate groups starting to form now. They don’t agree with the Great Revelation. I wouldn’t be surprised if that man was a part of them. In case of anything, just know that Zayn can survive any injury except a stake to the heart and a few blood-related diseases. Keep that in mind.”

The four supernaturals nodded, storing the information in their heads. Then, Harry brought up a pressing matter. “I just don’t understand why Zayn looked too accepting of the situation. He even thought that he was to blame for the whole ordeal.”

Eric ran a hand through his hair and let out a huff. “Here’s the thing with Zayn. Before he was my progeny, he was bullied a lot. I witnessed it firsthand on the night I took him away from that town. He only used his strength when he felt like serious damage would happen to him. Who knows how long he had been told and brainwashed that he was an outcast and an abomination.

“On some days, Zayn embraces who he is. He accepts that he is half-vampire and uses that to his advantage. Pam’s been helping him by telling him to accept that he’s different and regard it as an upper hand. However, sometimes, he hates himself. I’ve heard him regard himself as a freak when he was reiterating the story of how his childhood was in that town.

“He isn’t comfortable with his skin sometimes. Reports from Doctor Ludwig said that his father was Asian, Pakistani to be exact. That’s where he got his skin tone and some of his features. Zayn isn’t comfortable with the fact that he isn’t fully vampire or fully human. He isn’t comfortable with the fact that he is different from different,” Eric let out a sigh that felt weighed down by problems.

“We’ll help him accept who he is,” Liam promised, sounding very determined. “It pains us to see him blind to how much of a treasure he really is.”

Eric nodded in agreement. “It sure is,” he replied. “If I ever met up with his real Maker, I might slap her in the face for leaving him to self-destruct. That isn’t how a Maker should care for their progeny.”

“Are you any closer to finding out who she is?” Louis asked curiously.

“Doctor Ludwig said that she might have found something but she needs to rerun the test. We’ll have the answer in a few days, hopefully before whoever is hunting him down tries anything,” Eric told them.

“Any leads on them?” Niall asked. Eric shook his head.

“It seems like a dead end,” he answered. “I hope nothing drastic happens.”

Harry gave Eric a smile, “Don’t worry, Mr. Northman. We’ll protect Zayn with all we have.”

“I’m keeping you to that promise. If he’s harmed, I won’t hesitate to end you,” Eric threatened though his tone was humourous.

“I’m guessing that that’s your version of the talk fathers usually give to their children’s boyfriends,” Louis said, raising an eyebrow. Eric smirked at them.

“Exactly.”

…

“How many of these have you been to before?” Liam asked Zayn, his eyes sparing a glance to the passenger seat next to him to see the half-vampire drum his fingers on his thighs nervously. They were currently on their way to the vampire ball that Eric was hosting. They were all in their best suits, dressing to impress and give a good impression to Zayn’s fellow vampire peers.

“I’ve been to every one of them,” Zayn answered bluntly. “It’s kind of compulsory. Same old people every time only with new toys or progenies.” He let out a long sigh.

“I forgot that vampires lived long,” Louis said from the backseat. “It must be boring, innit?” Zayn nodded glumly.

“Normally, I just greet them and retreat to the kitchen or stay in the shadows if the event is held away from home,” Zayn replied. “Nobody usually asks for me anyway.” When Liam gave him a questioning look, he merely shrugged.

A few minutes later, they pulled up before a large mansion. The four supernaturals were awed by how big and magnificent it was but Zayn merely stared at it with disinterest. “Come on,” he said, starting to drag them to the front door.

When they walked in, Zayn led them to a hall before they stopped in front of two huge doors. The half-vampire pushed both of them open and they were greeted by the sound of party music and colourful sights of a brightly lit ballroom. One again, Harry, Niall, Louis and Liam were in awe.

Waiters moved around the ballroom, carrying drinks or food and offering them to the guests. The guests were either dancing or chatting. It was clear that a most of the guests were vampires but there were some humans too in the mix. The supernaturals watched as the vampires freely showed off their fangs and drank blood from wine glasses as if it was plain water. They stood still as they took in everything.

Zayn noticed how overwhelmed they were. “Hey,” he called out. They moved their gazes from their surrounding and looked at him. “Relax. This is exactly like a human party or something.” And then, Zayn started moving them around the ballroom, introducing them to people and greeting some old friends that he knew.

The boys liked watching Zayn at ease. He spoke with a formal yet warm tone. If someone was breaching a topic that made him uncomfortable, he managed to bring up something else. The boys could clearly see what Pam and Eric’s grooming had done to him. Zayn mirrored Eric in the extent of his knowledge and charm and was similar to Pam when it came to subtly making honest comments.

Zayn seemed to not need Pam or Eric’s help as he interacted with the guests. They had passed the two vampires at some point but the four supernaturals were too busy keeping track of who they met. They were also too busy admiring Zayn and they failed to notice a rather plump man approach them.

“Zayn,” the man called out, causing Zayn to look over at him before the half-vampire frowned. He excused himself from his current guests and focused his attention on the man. Naturally, where Zayn went, the four were sure to follow.

“Shahid,” Zayn said in a curt tone. The four supernaturals gave Shahid a once-over. The other vampire was dressed smartly and smelled of a nice cologne. However, there was something about him that made them be on guard.

“Nice to see you,” Zayn added as an afterthought even if he sounded slightly when saying words. Shahid let out a laugh that sounded far too insincere to any of their ears.

“Cut the bullshit, Zayn, I know that you aren’t happy to see me,” the plump vampire commented. Zayn coughed into his hand at that statement.

“No one is,” he mumbled under his breath although he knew that others could hear him. Louis snickered at how feisty Zayn seemed to be. Shahid gave the Halfling a tight smile that made the four other supernaturals’ skins crawl.

“Clever,” he complimented offhandedly. The vampire spied the presence of the four supernaturals behind Zayn. He regarded them with open interest. “Who are they? Did Northman give you bodyguards? Has he gone soft? I didn’t know that the mighty Eric Northman could resort to something so silly when it comes to keeping you protected. Are you that weak?”

Zayn scowled at him and responded before the other four could. “They’re my boyfriends,” Zayn replied. All pretenses of being polite were gone now. “And no, my maker has not gone soft. He can rip your balls off and shove it up your ass in a split second just like I can unless you keep your offending comments to yourself. ”

Shahid raised his hands up in a surrendering motion. “Sheesh, lighten up, Zaynie,” he admonished condescendingly. “Wonder what crawled up your ass. Oh wait, it was a cock—no, four cocks because you’re such a slut that you have four boyfriends.”

The vampire seemed to be pleased at his own lame joke. Unimpressed, Zayn crossed his arms over his chest. “At least I’m getting some. What about you, was it a century ago since you even looked at a woman’s naked body?”

Shahid flushed under Zayn’s own sarcastic reply. Niall had to bury his face in Liam’s shoulder to avoid laughing out loud but even the werewolf’s shoulders were shaking lightly as he suppressed the urge to chuckle loudly. Louis had a proud smile on his face and Harry had a pitying look that was directed to Shahid.

“Careful, Malik. Won’t want to start making enemies now, would we?”

“I thought we already were. Besides, I’m not afraid of you,” Zayn sneered at him with his eyes narrowed. Before Shahid could retort, the doors opened and the arrival of the vampire queen was announced. Zayn raised his eyebrows in interest. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something important to do,” Zayn said, maneuvering his way around Shahid, uncaring of whether their conversation was over or not.

As Eric’s progeny, he was required to be present when his maker greeted the queen. Niall, Harry, Louis and Liam all trailed after him. Zayn power-walked to where his maker and Pam were standing, already talking to the queen and playing their part of polite host. He felt his boyfriends speed up slightly to match his fast pace. He knew they wanted to ask about Shahid.

However, before they could say anything, Zayn noticed something move from the corner of his eyes. There was a split second before he realized that a vampire was moving towards the queen at lightning speed and Zayn spotted a stake hidden up his jacket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if now's a good time to go on hiatus. Ya know, because there's a cliffhanger ahaha but that would be mean. Well, things are only gonna get more hectic from here on out. I still haven't given you guys the smut you want ;p Just handjobs and dirty talking~~ Oh and Shahid aka Naughty Boy made an appearance. What's the deal with him, eh? I sense a bad omen. It could be just my feelings but anyway, hope you guys enjoyed that one. Comment below and let me know what you think.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn plays hero, the queen likes him but Zayn likes Harry's cock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavily unedited. In case you guys didn't know, I recently posted a Ziam oneshot. It features Model!Zayn and Solo artist! Liam. Give that a look if you haven't. It has smut ahaha. Excuse the mistakes I made. I was anxious to update and I couldn't be half-assed to check for mistakes. Hope you enjoyyyy

Of course, Zayn had to play the hero.

Everything was moving so fast and everyone was responding so slowly. The queen’s guards didn’t realize the threat until it was too close. Majority of the occupants of the room had not noticed what was happening. The Halfling used his vampire speed to try and intercept the attack on the queen. Zayn’s boyfriends had no time to react as they watched him run across the room.

Things seemed to happen in slow motion. The queen started to turn around, the attacker already held the stake in the air, Pam and Eric suddenly realize that an attempt of assassinating the queen was at hand. The queen’s guards moved into action but they were far too late to do a difference.

Luckily, Zayn had spotted the threat earlier and had moved a lot faster than a normal vampire due to the added speed being a half-vampire provided him with. The Halfling slammed his body against the attacker, throwing them both off balance and they slid across the ballroom floor. The stake was still in the attacker’s hands so he tried to jab Zayn instead when he realized that his assassination attempt was foiled.

The Halfling defended himself, getting off of the vampire and ducking out of harm’s way. The attacker also got to his feet and went after Zayn with the stake. He aimed it for Zayn’s chest every time, intending to hit his heart. Unfortunately for the attacker, Zayn was lithe and fast. Pam and Eric had trained him to fight so he expertly managed to dodge the attacks and tried to lay some of his own on the attacker.

When the stake got a little too close for comfort, Zayn grabbed it and tried to pull it out of the attacker’s grip. Unfortunately, he did not expect the attacker to hold on to the stake with as much force as Zayn was using to take it. This resulted in a game of tug of war. Both supernaturals pulled with all of their might, not wanting the other to gain an upper hand.

By some kind of law of Physics, the stake escaped both of their grips and was thrown across the room. Before the attacker could make a run for it, Zayn lunged at him. He pinned the attacker to the floor and the attacker struggled in his grip before kicking Zayn off of him. The force of the kick had the Halfling flying into the table that was laid with food.

 _Why did it always have to be tables_ , he wondered, quickly getting up. Zayn groaned when pain flared up his spine. He rotated his shoulders a bit, trying to get a few kinks out of it before charging at the attacker again. This time, Zayn aimed to take him down. The half-vampire quickly took on offence so that his opponent had no choice but to defend himself from Zayn’s attacks.

Zayn managed to punch the other vampire a couple of times before landing a roundhouse kick that made his opponent slide across the floor to Eric’s feet. Initially, the older vampire wanted to butt in and help Zayn after seeing him thrown into a table. However, when he saw that Zayn got up with the promise of vengeance in his eyes, Eric decided to sit this one out. And now, the attacker was on the floor by his feet.

The blond vampire quickly picked the offending vampire up by his collar. The attacker struggled in his grip, trying to pull Eric’s hand off of him. However, Eric was one of the oldest vampires in existence, even older than the queen standing next to him. A vampire’s strength depended on his age. The older a vampire was, the stronger he will be.

“You’re a rogue,” Eric spat after realizing that the vampire in his grip wasn’t registered under his district. “You’re not from around here, are you? I’m pretty sure that everyone in my district has sworn fealty to the queen.”

The offender looked at Eric with a look of disgust. “I ain’t swearing fealty to folks like you who agree with the Great Revelation.” Eric raised his eyebrows. Although majority of vampires had agreed with the Vampire Authority on revealing vampires to the world, there was a small group that terribly disagreed. This vampire seemed to be one of them.

“Tell me who you work with,” Eric ordered. Vampires couldn’t be glamoured and Eric had no way to force the attacker to tell the secrets he held. The offender sneered at Eric.

“I will never tell you anything,” he said to Eric with a look of disgust. “Might as well get rid of me now because no matter how much you torture me, I will not bend to your will.”

Although Eric wanted to test his claims (and his mind had already conjured up so many torture devices he could use on this son of a bitch), he decided to be a little reckless. If anyone who worked with the assassin was here, he would give them a warning. Eric gave the offender a bored look before turning to the queen.

“Your majesty, I would advise you to kindly step back,” Eric said. The queen didn’t question him and took a few steps back, as did her guards. Eric almost scoffed at the poor excuses the queen had for guards. He knew that they would be incapable of protecting the queen as soon as she stepped into the ballroom and he was right. Luckily, Zayn was quick on his feet.

Speaking of Zayn, Eric summoned his progeny forward. He turned the offender around in his grip, making him face Zayn instead of Eric. “You sure you don’t want to say anything?” Eric asked, giving the assassin a last chance to cough up any information. “If not, my progeny here will have the honour of ending your life.”

The assassin had the audacity to laugh. “This joke of a vampire?” he jeered, causing a muscle in Zayn’s jaw to tick. However, the half-vampire knew what the assassin was doing. He was trying to bait Zayn, assuming that Zayn would go with his instinct to kill the vampire on the spot. Unfortunately for him, Zayn wasn’t going to fall for that one. He was a progeny of Eric Northman and currently, Eric Northman was the one commanding the situation.

Zayn had to wait for Eric to tell him to do it and he would do it without hesitating. The assassin was cocky, relaxing in Eric’s grip and smirking at Zayn with amusement in his eyes. Oh how Zayn wanted so badly to wipe the satisfaction off of his face. His maker seemed to be observing the assassin too, gauging his next move.

Suddenly, Eric said, “döda honom.” and Zayn sprang to action. The Halfling surged forward and, without even blinking, he sank his nails into the attacker’s chest, successfully breaking his skin. The attacker screamed but Zayn paid no heed to him. The Halfling knew what he was being ordered to do. Zayn wrapped his fingers around the assassin’s dead heart before yanking it out of his body.

”Bye, bye, motherfucker,” Pam crooned from behind Eric, grinning maliciously. Eric and Zayn both turned their heads away as the assassin burst and disintegrated into a mound of bloody flesh. A few splatters of the vampire’s remains landed on Eric and Zayn but the two barely flinched.

Zayn threw the heart away from him, feeling repulsed by it. Pam was quick to hand them both towels. Eric and Zayn wiped off the flesh and blood that stuck to the side of their faces and tried to get their suits cleaned as well as they could. Zayn blanched, annoyed that his suit was ruined but that was to be expected whenever he killed.  

“Wow, Eric, if it weren’t for your progeny, I would be dead right now,” the queen spoke up suddenly, ending the moment of silence they had been in. The queen looked dainty. She had scarlet-coloured hair and pale skin. With her hands were manicured, her hair in perfect curls and a fancy dress, one would assume that she had never lifted a finger all her life. However, Zayn was not fooled.

From the tales Eric had told him, Zayn knew that Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq could be as vicious as Eric. She was not made a queen for nothing. Zayn watched as the queen gave him a once-over before grinning, her sharp fangs out and gleaming under the ballroom lights. “Your progeny should join my guards,” the queen suggested. However, her tone made it seem like she ordered Eric to make Zayn join her guard rather than just a suggestion.

Before Eric could reply, Zayn cut in, “It would be an honour to be protecting the queen but I have to decline.” Was there a gentle way to reject an offer made by the queen without getting yourself obliterated? If there was, Zayn knew that he wasn’t doing it right. The queen pursed her lips and her eyebrows furrowed as she took in his declination.

“Why? “ She asked, unsatisfied. She looked at him directly in the eye to try and figure him out before adding,” You can have riches, fame, anything you want. Why wouldn’t you want that?”

Zayn rubbed the back of his neck to appear sincerely apologetic even though he was not. The Halfling did not want to be in the presence of the queen for more than he had to. He knew that she could be playing him into a trap. With a big secret under his belt, Zayn knew that he could not afford to have her catching on. “I just enjoy working at Fangtasia with my maker,” he fibbed.

The queen huffed, her red lips tilted upwards into a pout. “There must be some way I can repay you,” then, her eyes lit up. “I’m having dinner with an important guest tomorrow night. You should join us. You can bring anyone you want as long as you come.”

Zayn’s eyes flickered to his maker to silently ask for his opinion. Eric merely shrugged and that meant Zayn had to agree. If one dinner with the queen would get her off his back, so be it. Zayn nodded his head and the queen let out a squeal.

“Wonderful,” she clapped her hands with a gleeful look on her face. Then, she turned to Eric. “Northman, I’m sorry but I have to go home. Everything just ruined my appetite.” She didn’t wait for him to give her his permission before turning on her heels and sauntering out, he guards following closely behind her.

Eric turned to Pam, “Get someone to clean this filth off of my ballroom floor.” The blonde nodded and went off to find someone to clean the floor. Then, the maker turned to Zayn.

“Great job,” he praised, giving Zayn a soft, reserved smile. Zayn just smiled back at him and shrugged.

“Long live the queen, right?” he joked. Eric rolled his eyes at Zayn in amusement and the Halfling decided to take his leave. He needed to see how his boyfriends were holding up.

Zayn crossed the ballroom, heading to where his boyfriends were standing before he had run off earlier. His hands were in his pockets and he itched to go upstairs to the room he had in Eric’s house so that he could go and change but figured that his boyfriends needed his attention more. Once Zayn stopped in front of them, he gave them a shy smile.

“You guys all right?” he asked slowly. They were all staring at him, not uttering a single word and it kind off made the half-vampire nervous. Luckily, Liam was the first to speak.

“We should be asking you that question.” The werewolf grabbed Zayn by the arm and pulled him closer before swatting the half-vampire’s arse. “What were you thinking, running off like that? You could have gotten killed.” Zayn rolled his eyes at Liam’s scolding. The Halfling honestly didn’t think it was such a big deal.

Liam frowned and spanked him lightly again, “Don’t roll your eyes at me. You worried us.” Noticing that his boyfriends were actually genuinely concerned about his wellbeing, Zayn grabbed both of Liam’s hands and held them in his smaller ones.

“I’m fine,” he assured them, looking at them each in the eyes and rubbing his thumbs on the backs of Liam’s hands gently. “I had to protect the queen and I managed to do so without getting killed. Let’s stop focusing on the past and go to my room. I need to clean myself up.”

The boys took in the state Zayn was in and nodded. They followed Zayn’s lead as he led them out of the ballroom, around a few corners, up a flight of stairs, around more corners and finally they stopped in front of a room with huge double doors.

Zayn grasped the doorknobs and pulled the doors open. The room uncovered was magnificent. Everything had a Victorian era feel to it. The wardrobes were antique, the rugs looked expensive. Everything seemed to have a gold accent on it. Zayn’s favourite part of the room would be his bed. It was a large king-sized bed with fluffy pillows and comforters. He loved sleeping in it and now, he had four other people to share it with.

The half-vampire let his boyfriends gawk at his room while he dug out a tee shirt and a pair of sweatpants out of one of the drawers before walking into the bathroom joined to his bedroom. He closed the door halfway and started to change. When he went back into his bedroom, his boyfriends were still marveling at the sight of his room.

The Halfling chuckled fondly. “All right, who wants tee shirts and sweatpants?” he asked. Louis and Niall raised their hands. Zayn fished out two shirts and two pairs of sweatpants before handing them over to the two. Liam moved to stand next to Zayn near the drawers.

Zayn looked at Liam from head to toe before doing the same to Harry and finally huffing in frustration. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything that would fit you guys,” he said. Liam gave him a grin.

“It’s okay, love,” he assured. “I’ll just borrow a pair of sweatpants. I don’t mind sleeping shirtless.”

“And I sleep naked,” Harry interjected, giving Zayn a dimpled smile. Zayn gave Liam a pair of larger sweatpants and looked at Harry. “No, really. I don’t mind sleeping naked.” For some reason, the wizard thought that undressing on the spot would somehow convince Zayn, not that the vampire was complaining.

Without meaning to, Zayn stared at Harry’s naked form once the wizard had finished getting undressed. He couldn’t stop his eyes from roaming Harry’s torso before heading lower, past his plethora of random tattoos and Harry’s abs, down towards his happy trail and—

“My eyes are up here, Zayn,” Harry jokingly said, causing Zayn to flush and avert his eyes.

“Sorry,” the half-vampire apologized. Harry cooed at him and grabbed Zayn’s hand. Before Zayn could ask what he was going to do, Harry placed Zayn’s hand on his exposed cock. He made Zayn’s fingers wrap (or try to wrap) around his cock and guided the half-vampire’s hand up and down.

“You don’t have to apologize,” the wizard said, his tone playful but his eyes darkening. “Just take a feel of it. You’ll be feeling this in you some day, hopefully in the near future.” Zayn’s mouth watered with how hard Harry felt. He was just so big and Zayn’s fingers couldn’t quite wrap wholly around his girth.

Harry let go of his hand but Zayn kept up the pace. He was so enamored by Harry’s cock that he didn’t notice Liam moving closer to him until the werewolf’s naked chest was flush against his covered back. Liam moved his hands onto Zayn’s shoulders before lowering his mouth so that it was next to Zayn’s ear.

“Would you like to suck him, Zayn?” he asked, voice deep and low. “Would you like to be on your knees for him? Be a good boy and bring him pleasure?”

A tight heat coiled in Zayn’s stomach as he pondered Liam’s words. The half-vampire bit his lip and nodded shyly. “Yes, please,” he said to Liam before looking up at Harry through his lashes. Zayn felt the wizard’s cock twitch in his hand and Harry nodded before giving Liam a desperate look.

Liam’s hands on Zayn’s shoulders suddenly pushed the half-vampire down until he was on his knees between them. Zayn’s face was leveled with Harry’s cock. It was there in front of his face, hard as a rock and flushed red. Zayn bit his lip to stop himself from putting Harry into his mouth and shuffled closer to the wizard.

“Can I?” Zayn asked politely, looking for Harry’s permission before he did anything. The wizard closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out before reopening his eyes and nodding at Zayn.

“Go ahead, baby,” he encouraged the half-vampire.

Zayn started off slowly, giving the head of Harry’s cock kitten licks and lapping up the precum that was starting to spurt out. Harry groaned as Zayn teased him with promises of what was to come. The half-vampire’s tongue felt good on him. Once Zayn had gathered up his courage, he started to take in Harry’s cock, inch by inch.

The half-vampire made sure that his teeth did not graze Harry’s cock and used his tongue to try and lick around the wizard. Zayn relaxed his throat as he took Harry in deeper. His mouth was forced wide open, causing an ache to start in his jaws. But Zayn loved it and he looked up at Harry to see how the wizard was reacting.

Harry moaned. The feeling of Zayn’s hot, wet mouth around him was heavenly. When Zayn hollowed his cheeks around Harry and started to suck, one of the wizard’s hands went to his hair to keep Zayn there. Harry looked down and watched as Zayn looked back up at him while still sucking his cock, his head bobbing up and down.

Liam thumbed over the one of Zayn’s prominent cheekbones before moving down to the hollow of Zayn’s cheek to feel the outline of Harry’s cock in his mouth. “You look beautiful, love,” he complimented Zayn. Zayn responded with a hum around Harry’s cock and that almost made the wizard’s knees buckle from under him.

Harry’s grip tightened in Zayn’s hair and the Halfling moaned. Apparently he liked having his hair played with. Zayn pulled off of Harry’s cock but used his hand to continue to stroke him. “Fuck my mouth,”Zayn said, his voice already hoarse. When Harry furrowed his eyebrows and looked hesitant, Zayn added in a pleading voice, “Please.”

Then, the Halfling took Harry back into his mouth, not stopping until his nose reached Harry’s pubes and the head of Harry’s cock nudged the back of his throat. The wizard let out a hiss in pleasure and decided to give Zayn what he wanted. Using both hands, he kept Zayn’s head in place before he started thrusting his cock into Zayn’s mouth relentlessly.

The half-vampire quickly learned his pattern and adjusted himself so that he didn’t accidentally choke on Harry’s dick (although that wouldn't be such a bad thing). Zayn’s eyes started to water and he blinked rapidly to clear them. Harry pulled Zayn’s head down further so that the half-vampire was deepthroating his cock and made Zayn stay there until he was sure that Zayn felt pleasantly light-headed before allowing the Halfling off of his cock.

Zayn swallowed the saliva in his mouth before looking up at the concerned expressions of Harry and Liam. “That wasn’t too much, was it?” Harry asked, fearing that he had gone slightly too far with that kink. Zayn shook his head.

“More,” he could barely say the word as his voice was so rough from sucking Harry’s cock. Harry didn’t waste any time before he thrust back into Zayn’s mouth and made him deepthroat his cock again. Zayn moaned in pleasure, his eyes shut.

His own hands twitched to get a hand on himself but he wanted to pay attention to Harry. Zayn let Harry use him, let the wizard thrust into his mouth repeatedly in order to chase is orgasm. At some point, Harry’s hips stuttered and Zayn braced himself to swallow.

“I’m going to pull out,” Harry said, assuming that Zayn didn’t want him to cum in his mouth. Zayn made sounds of protest before putting his hands on Harry’s ass and keeping him in place. He started to suck harder, wanting to get Harry to his release.

The wizard let out a growl when he finally came. He thrust his hips gently into Zayn’s mouth through his orgasm as the half-vampire sucked him dry and licked him clean. He pushed Zayn’s hair back off of his sweaty forehead. “You did good, babe,” he said. Zayn pulled off of him and licked his lips.

“Thanks,” he beamed at Harry. Zayn noticed the hard-on Liam was sporting and gave him a look to ask if he wanted Zayn to suck him off too. Liam shook his head.

“I’ll be fine,” he said to Zayn before pulling the half-vampire up to his feet. “Just watching you and Harry put on a show has me on edge.”

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened and Niall and Louis walked out, their clothes wrinkled and hair mussed up. When the two took in the state Zayn, Harry and Liam were in, they breathed sigh of relief.

“We were worried that you guys might get mad at us for jacking each other off to how sexy Zayn looked when he went all vampire mode in the bathroom without you guys but it seems that you have been just as busy,” Louis said. He gave Zayn a pointed look and the half-vampire flushed under his gaze.

“Was it good?” Niall asked. “I’m assuming from Zayn’s bruised lips that he was blowing someone. Was he good?” Harry responded by jumping on the bed before landing on his back and snuggling into the covers.

“It was fantastic,” he said dreamily. The others chuckled and they each got into bed. Zayn was in the middle and he was flocked by Harry and Liam. Niall was spooning Liam and Louis was spooning Harry.

The five cuddled with each other and enjoyed each other’s warmth. Just as they were about to fall asleep, Louis remembered something and asked, “Hey, Zayn. Who’s Shahid?”

“Hm?” Zayn asked, semi-consciously. Something at the back of his mind was nagging him alert. “Shahid?”

Louis looked over Harry’s shoulder and nodded. “Yeah, the guy from the ballroom that you roasted. What’s his story?” Zayn frowned, suddenly becoming wide awake. In fact, all of them pushed sleep aside as they waited for Zayn to talk.

“Shahid was a friend of mine. When I was still new to the community, Eric introduced us,” Zayn explained. “He was really nice at first, offering me tips and advice. We ran a few errands together, got high off of fairy blood together. But then everything went wrong.”

Harry smoothed his fingers over Zayn’s forehead, wanting to get the tense look off of his face. “What happened?” he asked gently. Liam rubbed his side, trying to get him to relax.

“He tried to take advantage of me,” the hands on Zayn stopped and the half-vampire froze, worried that he had angered them. However, they resumed their gentle ministrations on him and Zayn continued.

“He said I smelled so sweet and that my blood would taste sweeter so he tried to drink from me. I knew that I had to stop him because if not, my secret would be exposed. Unfortunately, I was paralysed. I was too busy wondering why my only friend would turn on me for the sake of my blood than to try and push him away. Luckily, Eric was there. He managed to stop Shahid before he could drink my blood. He made sure that Shahid never saw me again unless it was at vampire events like tonight’s.”

The boys suddenly had a feeling that Shahid might have contributed to how negatively Zayn felt about himself sometimes. That caused their bloods to boil angrily. Shahid made their boyfriend doubt himself and hate himself. Imagine having a friend and only finding out that he had a hidden agenda, one that concerned the very thing that made you feel alienated from others. Man, no wonder Zayn barely trusted people. 

Louis huffed out, “What a dick. I knew I should have socked him in the jaw when I had a chance.” Louis continued to talk, muttering threats and promises on how Shahid would regret what he did. As much as Zayn would love to hear more on how Louis would make Shahid pay, his eyes started to get heavy, weighed down by the exhaustion due to the lack of energy he had left after fighting and sucking Harry off.

Liam noticed this change. “Hey, Lou,” he received a glare from the demon because he had interrupted Louis’ ramblings. However, Liam ignored it in favor of gesturing to Zayn who had fallen fast asleep. Louis’ eyes turned soft.

“Hm, I guess it is time to sleep,” Louis noted. His head disappeared behind Harry and Liam heard the rustling of the sheets as Louis started to get comfortable.

“Yeah, he’s got a meeting with the queen tomorrow,” Niall reminded them, snuggling into his pillow behind Liam. Harry hummed in response, already starting to join Zayn in slumberland. Watching his boyfriends fall asleep one after the other, Liam kissed Zayn’s forehead fondly and finally joined them too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to end the chapter with Zayn meeting the queen at dinner but somehow it already reached 4k words and I didn't want to lag on. I blame that poor excuse of smut. My first time writing a blowjob scene. I swear to God, I was half-asleep when I wrote it. I just went into my mind and pulled out the words I've read that people use when writing a blowjob scene and put them in there. I don't even know if it made sense. Sorry. Anyway, what did you think about this chapter? What do you think is gonna happen next? Shahid's a dickhead yeah? Let me know in the comments below :) Oh, and I fully allow you guys to share theories with me btw


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of bonding time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for my lack of updates. I have been trying to write something but my mind just couldn't do it. Last week was a rough week for me and I felt drained every time I opened my computer. And then, Zayn's single came out and it gave me an adrenalin rush but not enough for me to update. I also got a hate comment on one of my other stories but I feel better because someone stood up for me (I was planning on letting the hate slide) and their username was basically mine with defensesquad at the back so I feel very very loved. I am also terribly sorry because this isn't one of the chapters that I am proud to give you to read but I promise that the next update will be better. Sorry for any mistakes made and I hope you enjoy.

“Zayn… Zaynie… Zayner…Zayniekins… Zee…”

Zayn twitched slightly when he felt something poke his nose. The half-vampire decided to ignore it in favor of snuggling into the warmth he felt coming from either side of him. Unfortunately, whatever the disturbance was, it was persistent. Something poked Zayn’s nose again and when he didn’t respond, it trailed down and poked his cheek instead.

Whining slightly, the Halfling swatted the air above his face, successfully hitting something solid and fleshy that caused a yelp to be heard from the offender. Satisfied with himself, Zayn curled up with a small smirk on his face. Only a few moments passed by before something pulled on his eyelid and forced him to open his eyes.

Zayn flinched back at the sudden intrusion and blinked a couple of times before opening his eyes properly. He looked up to see Niall and Louis’ grinning faces above him. The half-vampire frowned and huffed. “Fuck off,” he said before trying to fall asleep again.

“Zayn, wake up,” Louis whispered, careful not to disturb their other two boyfriends. Zayn gave Louis the finger and the demon frowned. “C’mon, Zaynie. Wake up.”

“Leave me alone,” Zayn mumbled into his pillow, his eyebrows pinched from trying to concentrate on falling asleep again. If he was a full vampire, nothing they did could get him awake. Alas, he was not.

“Zee, I’m hungry,” Niall said, poking him in the side. Zayn peeked one eye open to see Niall looking at him, a sad pout was present on his face. As if on cue, Niall’s stomach rumbled. Knowing that he couldn’t let Niall go hungry (and the fact that he was the only one who knew the layout of the mansion so he couldn’t shoo them off), Zayn sighed before slowly sitting up.

The half-vampire ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He scooted towards the edge of the bed and got up, stretching slightly and letting out a yawn. Louis and Niall watched as Zayn’s shirt rode up a bit, exposing a part of his lower abdomen and his v-line. Louis’ eyes darkened with lust but he fought the urge to jump his boyfriend. Niall may be hungry for food but if Zayn was offering himself, his appetite could be persuaded.

Zayn looked back to see them staring at him. “What?” he asked, feeling somewhat self-conscious. Zayn’s hands came up to his face and felt around, “Is there drool on my face?”

Louis smiled sweetly at him, “There’s nothing, love. We were just thinking a few unholy thoughts.” Zayn tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at that but he decided not to push it.

“C’mon, let’s go get food,” the half-vampire said, grabbing their hands and pulling them off the bed too. He led them to the door and stepped out first, making sure that the hallway was clear. Although he had been Eric’s progeny for quite some time, Zayn wasn’t always alerted with the change of security. There were bound to be a few people around that Eric had hired to keep watch over the house in the morning. Zayn didn’t want them to see him and then wonder why a vampire was up during the day.

Once satisfied with the empty hallway, Zayn led his two boyfriends around a few corners, down the stairs and to the kitchen. Although they were vampires, Eric often kept the kitchen stocked. He enjoyed a bit of human food every now and then and he knew that Zayn deeply appreciated having human food for a change instead of blood.

Speaking of blood, Zayn took out a blood bag from the fridge, poured some into a mug and popped it into the microwave for it to heat up. Eric was a respected vampire with a lot of connections. He managed to pull a few strings so that they had a supply of blood rather than having to pull in humans or drink Tru Blood.

When he turned around, he saw Niall looking at him wide-eyed. “What?” Zayn asked, feeling self-conscious for the second time that morning.

“Nothing,” Niall said hastily and Zayn immediately knew that the sight of Zayn pouring blood into a cup as if it was water has Niall feeling a little uncomfortable. He was about to say something to help ease Niall but when the spirit sent him a small smile, he understood that Niall needed time to get used to it so the Halfling bit his tongue.

Louis broke the silence by opening and closing the cupboards noisily. “So, what do you have?” the demon asked, peeking into drawers and pulling a few bowls out.

“I think I have pancake mix around here somewhere,” Zayn helped Louis search for it through the cupboards. He let out an ‘aha’ and pulled out a box of pancake mix. Louis rubbed his hands gleefully.

“Let’s get down to business,” the demon said. He started to make the pancake batter and gave his two boyfriends other jobs to do. Niall was in charge of making the scrambled eggs and Zayn had to cook the bacons and make toast. It took them a while to get into a rhythm, with Niall screwing up a bit on the eggs (“Nialler, all you have to do is crack the eggs gently. Not smash them like that!”) and Zayn burning the toast slightly (“Don’t put the heat on too high or it’ll rival Hell itself.”) but they did it.

By the end of cooking time, they managed to produce a stack of perfectly cooked pancakes, a plate of scrambled eggs (“There better not be eggshells in there or I’m blaming you.”), a plate of bacons and toast that was slightly charred around the edges. Louis looked at their dishes and sighed.

“Remind me not to appoint any one of you as my Sous-Chef,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “You guys did good but if I was Gordon Ramsay, I would have roasted your asses.”

Niall rolled his eyes and took out some plates. “Whatever, Lou. At least we have food.” The spirit started to pile food onto his plate. Zayn took out his mug of blood and slowly sipped it as Louis went to brew coffee and make some tea. “Shouldn’t we wait for Liam and Harry?” the half-vampire asked, worried that his two sleeping boyfriends would miss out on the food with the way Niall started scarfing it down.

Louis shook his head. “Nope, they’ll be down in three, two, one.” As if on cue, Liam and Harry walked in, hair a mess and clothes disheveled. They stumbled to sit on empty seats at the table and started putting food on their plates. Louis and Zayn joined them.

“Morning,” Louis said, putting down a cup of coffee in front of Liam and a cup of tea in front of Harry. Liam grunted in response, too busy shoveling food into his mouth and Harry mumbled it back, still sleepy.

Zayn grabbed a plate of food for himself and started to eat slowly. He took a spoonful of scrambled eggs and put it into his mouth. After chewing a couple of times, the half-vampire quickly got up, causing his boyfriends to look at him with concern, and spat out the food in his mouth into a trash can.

“Eggshells?” Louis asked once Zayn sat down in his seat. The half-vampire nodded.

“Yeah,” Zayn resumed eating, avoiding the worried looks the other four were sending him. He didn’t want them to worry because it was just a few pieces of eggshells, nothing deadly. However, when he looked up, he saw Niall send him a guilty look.

“Sorry, Zayn. It’s my fault the eggshells are there,” the blond apologized, looking remorseful. Zayn reached across the table and grabbed Niall’s hand.

“It’s okay. It was an accident,” the Halfling said, hoping to soothe Niall’s conscience. He rubbed his thumb on the back of Niall’s hand and that helped the spirit relax. They continued to eat, Zayn’s hand still gripping Niall’s for the remainder of breakfast.

As soon as they had finished washing up, Liam asked, “Do you by any chance have a gym around here?”

Zayn nodded. What was a mansion without a gym? “Yeah, there’s one here. Pam and Eric use it to train me.” Liam’s face lit up like the lights on a Christmas tree while Louis’ face dimmed.

“We’re gonna have to exercise, aren’t we?” the demon asked the werewolf, a glum look on his face. Liam nodded, cracking his knuckles. It was actually routine that they all spent a day exercising with Liam as their coach. It just so happened that Liam picked today of all days.

“We got to burn those calories, boys,” the werewolf said before nodding his head at Zayn, prompting him to lead the way to the gym.

After several turns, Zayn managed to locate the gym (even he forgot where it was sometimes) and opened the doors. Liam let out a low appreciative whistle at the sight before him while the other three gaped. Everything in the gym looked brand new and expensive. There were so many exercise equipments that Liam could only dream of buying.

Liam rubbed his hands together, already formulating a plan. He started delegating tasks to each of them. “Alright, Niall and Harry, you guys do some weight lifting. Zayn and Louis, you two should go on treadmill.” Harry and Niall went over to carry out the order given to them.

Louis already started walking to the treadmill but Zayn just gave Liam an amused look. “I think it would be cheating if I went on the treadmill,” he said to Liam. When the werewolf gave him a confused look, Zayn added, “You know, with vampire speed and all.”

The werewolf’s eyes widened when he realized how silly the notion of asking Zayn to go on a treadmill was. He quickly scanned the room and spotted a boxing ring. “Do you box?” Liam asked Zayn. The half-vampire nodded.

“Yeah, I do. Not much but I know a few moves,” Zayn responded. Liam nodded, satisfied by his answer.

“Good, you and I are going to start boxing,” Liam said, dragging Zayn to the boxing ring.

An hour later, the boys were all sweaty and exhausted. Liam decided that they should stop exercising for the day and freshen up. As soon as they were cleaned up, they all laid in Zayn’s bed so that they could take a nap together. Zayn was in the middle like always with Louis and Niall flanking his left and right and the other two behind them.

As they were trying to fall asleep, Zayn’s mind wandered off and he started to think about a lot of things, mainly about how they all knew a lot about him and his abilities but he knew nothing of theirs. Before meeting them, Zayn would have never researched about other supernatural creatures. He didn’t see the point and besides, the internet wasn’t accurate. His only source of information was his mentor.

Now that he had four supernatural boyfriends, Zayn figured that he should at least know the basics of what they could do. What kind of boyfriend would he be if he didn’t look after them like they did him? What if they left him because he didn’t seem to care about them? Zayn frowned a couple of times, trying to control the thoughts in his mind.

Louis fidgeted next to Zayn, his demon side could tell that Zayn’s mind was working furiously and the demon wondered what the half-vampire could possibly be thinking about. He was exuding a very negative vibe and Louis couldn’t help but be worried.

“You all right?” Louis asked Zayn. When Zayn looked up at him with an expression akin to a deer caught in headlights, Louis knew that even without his powers, there was something bothering him. Louis’ words caught the attention of his other boyfriends and soon, Zayn had four pairs of eyes on him.

The Halfling avoided their eyes shyly. When he looked up, he saw Louis give him a pointed look. “Mind telling us? You can trust us, yeah?”

Zayn didn’t want to tell them. He felt embarrassed and ashamed. However, he owed it to them to at least communicate. At Fangtasia, when people got drunk, they would sometimes hang out at the bar and start talking about their life stories. Many of them shared tales of heartbreaks that centered around their inability to confide in their partners and lack of communication in a relationship.

In short, Zayn learned that communication is the key to a good relationship. Mustering up his courage, Zayn voiced out his thoughts, making sure to avoid eye contact as he was sure that they must have felt disappointed in his lack of knowledge about them. However, when he dared himself to look up, he was met with warm looks.

“You want to know what we can do?” Niall asked, smiling softly. In his opinion, it was sweet that Zayn was curious about their abilities. The Halfling nodded. With that confirmation, a full-blown smile graced Niall’s face. “We’d be honoured to tell you about our powers.”

“Can I start?” Harry asked, excitedly, from his place behind Niall. He didn’t wait for a reply though. He was _that_ eager to tell Zayn.“I’m a wizard, yeah? We’re a bit like Harry Potter but with less mumbo jumbo. We don’t really have to speak all those words to cast a spell. Things are pretty direct nowadays. Wizards are like doctors and scientists. We help cure people and we also make up new potions. I could show you how to brew a potion one day.”

Zayn enjoyed watching Harry speak so fondly of his powers. His voice would rise a few tones when he got to the best parts and he would talk _slightly_ faster than usual. Zayn also noted that Harry’s would sparkle a bit as he talked. God, he was so whipped.

The Halfling thought that Harry’s powers sounded pretty cool and hoped to get the opportunity of seeing Harry cast a spell one day. Beside him, Louis scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“My powers are cooler than yours,” the demon gloated. Harry narrowed his eyes at Louis and pouted.

“That’s mean, Lou. It sounds like you’re saying that I’m lame,” Harry said, making a sad face at Liam, probably pleading at their werewolf boyfriend to intervene. Louis sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Fine. We’re all cool,” he said reluctantly but with a fond smile on his face. “Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Demons are creatures of hell, yeah? So we have abilities like angels, only darker. Demons can probe into your mind; we can unlock parts of your mind that you don’t even know existed. I can make you see your fears right in front of your eyes. I can make hallucinations happen. I can also sense your emotions if they’re strong enough. Basically, my powers focus more on the mental aspect of life.”

Zayn had to admit that Louis’ powers were kind of scary but it was understandable because he was a demon. However, it still made him slightly uncomfortable that Louis could invade his mind anytime he wanted to. Seeing the unease on his boyfriend’s face, Louis was quick to mollify him.

“Don’t worry, love,” Louis said in a soft tone. “I won’t do anything without your permission. Unlike most demons, I value consent.” That made Zayn relax a bit.

“My powers are similar to Lou’s but also different,” Niall started to say. “As you saw the other day when I ran off with one of the ingredients Harry needed for his potion, I can turn invisible.”

“Don’t think that I’ve forgotten that,” Harry said in a stern tone from behind Niall. “You’re still getting punished for it.” As if to prove his point, the wizard slapped Niall’s butt.

“A little kinky for me, Haz. I thought that was Lou’s thing,” the spirit joked, making Zayn crack a smile. Louis reached across Zayn and flicked Niall on the nose. Niall scrunched up his nose before swatting Louis’ hand away and focusing his attention on Zayn.

“As I was saying before these two interrupted, I can also move through solid objects but that power is very draining for me so I do not do it often. Other than that, I can possess people because what’s a spirit if he can’t do that, right?” Zayn nodded, understandingly. Then, the Halfling looked over to Liam, waiting for the werewolf to start talking.

“Well, I’m not that special,” Liam stated, rubbing his chin. “I have super-strength and speed. I also have sensitive hearing. I’m an alpha so I have ruts every once in a while—

“—which makes the sex fucking spectacular,” Louis interjected, a wistful look on his face. Liam’s face flushed with embarrassment and his ears were tinged with pink.

“I guess it does,” he admitted sheepishly. Louis elbowed him with a coy look on his face. Liam’s face sobered slightly. “But that’s it from me. I don’t have anything else.”

“Oh, but you have a large dick,” Louis commented in a nonchalant tone as if he was talking about the weather. Niall snickered.

“And big hands and muscles that can manhandle us,” Niall added, pleased to see Liam’s face redden. Harry hummed.

“Yeah, and you have those pretty pink lips that can do good dirty talk and also look good around a dick,” he remarked. Liam rolled so that he was lying on his back and covered his face with his hands.

“Stop, guys,” he commanded in a weak tone. “Zayn has to get up in a couple of hours to go to a dinner with the queen. If we don’t sleep now, he’ll be tired tonight.”

“Okay, so that ends us discussing about our powers and Liam’s _upsized_ everything,” Louis stated, clasping his hands together as if they were in a normal meeting and not chatting about dicks and kinks a few minutes ago. “Now, everybody sleep.”

The five snuggled closer together. Suddenly, Louis made a noise of discomfort, “Oh, Liam, I can feel your stiffy.”

…

“You’re not going with me?” Zayn asked, confused. He was currently in Eric’s office in the mansion. He watched as his maker got ready to go to Fangtasia. The older vampire turned around as he was slipping on a jacket and shook his head.

“I can’t, Zayn,” Eric said, brushing a hand through his hair. “I have to manage Fangtasia. I can’t just leave everything to Pam.” Seeing his progeny’s troubled expression, the blond vampire went to Zayn and put his hands on the Halfling’s shoulders.

“You’ll be fine,” the older vampire insisted. “You’ll have your boys with you at all times. You’ll be safe. You don’t need me to take care of you all the time. You’re strong so please remember that. “

Zayn hesitated at his words before he nodded, accepting the advice given to him. “ The queen seems to have taken a liking to you. I don’t think that you have to worry about doing something wrong or saying something offensive to her. However, if the queen tries anything, you grab your boy toys and get the hell out of there, all right?” Zayn nodded again.

Eric slung his arm around Zayn and started leading him out of the office. “Try to have fun tonight,” he reminded his progeny. They went down the flight of stairs and went outside. As soon as they spotted Harry, Louis, Liam and Niall, Eric pushed Zayn towards them.

“Keep him safe, boys. I expect him to go home with you in one piece,” he gave them a pointed look.

“We won’t let him out of our sights,” Liam responded, pleasing Eric. The older vampire gave him a satisfied smile.

“Well, time to go then,” Eric gave Zayn a pat on the back before he shot up in the sky, flying off to Fangtasia. Zayn already knew that his maker could fly. It was a skill that vampires had to be taught but Zayn wasn’t very keen on flying. He was deathly afraid of heights so he rejected Eric’s offer to teach him that skill.

The Halfling dared a glance at his boyfriends and he saw them staring after Eric’s retreating figure with looks of disbelief on their faces.

“He can fly?” Louis asked, bewildered. “Can _you_ fly?”

“He can, I can’t,” Zayn replied. He rubbed the back of his neck and added, “I don’t like heights very much.”

Before Louis could badger Zayn on what other abilities that they did not know he had, Liam came to save the day as usual by ushering them all to the car, claiming that they had to be on the road if they wanted to arrive to dinner with the queen at a respectable time.

While Louis sat in the front seat and grumbled about how Zayn was probably keeping his abilities a secret, Zayn sent Liam a grateful smile when the werewolf looked at him through the rearview mirror. Liam winked back at him and Zayn sank back into his seat, starting to fret about meeting the queen. He must have been giving off negative vibes again because Louis quieted down and reached back to rub Zayn’s hand.

Even Harry and Niall had scooted closer and were doing things to calm him down like playing with the hair at the nape of his neck and rubbing his shoulders. Zayn relaxed slightly under their ministrations and the vampire knew that he could always count on his boys to ensure that he was comfortable at all times.

And for the first time in a long while, Zayn felt the warm fluttering feeling of being loved by people who he did not consider as family. Not just needed and wanted by them, he genuinely felt loved. He had noted that the feeling was always there in him after he met the boys but it was more of a small spark of a feeling. Now, it felt like a bright flame inside of him. And what a great feeling it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so it was more of a filler chapter and I swear to God that it was supposed to have them meet the queen and have dinner but for some reason this happened instead. Things will escalate in the next chapter, I hope (if my brain lets me). Sorry for the awful ending for the chapter. I don't think much of it made sense but never mind. Anyway, comment your thoughts on what's gonna happen and also on PILLOWTALK !
> 
> P.S: Zayn's not gonna get hurt... yet. Seriously, I think that if you're an author, you're first instinct is to hurt your characters and I don't know why.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things escalate quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like how this chapter turned out. Forgive me for any mistakes and don't kill me for what happens next. If you're having trouble on how the characters look:  
> Eric Northman is played by Alexander Skarsgard, Pam is played by Kristin Bauer van Straten. The boys are all OTRA! versions of themselves. Except for Zayn. He's the 2014 version with the Aladdin hair/ Hair at the royal variety performance. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoyyyyy

“Eric, could you go through the papers on your desk?” Pam asked as soon as the older vampire stepped through Fangtasia’s doors. The place already had a few patrons despite the time being early evening. Eric spotted Ant working the bar and gave him a nod when Ant saluted him in greeting. He started walking to his office with Pam falling in step with him. She continued, “I think my credit card bill is in there somewhere so if you would take care of that, that’ll be great.”

Eric rolled his eyes at Pam’s words. His progeny went shopping almost every single week. She claimed that it was as payment for the work she put into the bar. Eric also discovered that if he bribed Pam with a promise of extra allowance on her shopping sprees, she would do whatever he wanted. The vampire didn’t understand why his progeny was so keen on shopping. He found it to be quite bothersome.

Once, Pam had bought two pairs of red heels and they looked the same shade. At least they did to Eric’s eyes. However, when Eric voiced his thoughts, she gave him an hour-long lecture on the fact that they were different shades. She even pulled out a colour chart. From then on, Eric rarely commented on her shopping sprees but that didn’t meant he didn’t feel like teasing her once in a while.

“You know, maybe I should start cutting expenses on your shopping sprees,” he said jokingly. “With how much shopping you do, we’re bound to go broke.” Pam skidded to a stop but Eric kept walking. Suddenly, Pam’s nails dug into the skin of his bicep, effectively stopping him, and she forcefully turned him around to face her.

“Don’t you dare or I will rip your balls off,” she warned, her eyes flashing dangerously. Since Eric was older than Pam, he merely brushed her hand off, not taking offence that she had threatened to castrate him. He gave her an amused look in return.

“When facing a room full of vampires, you don’t bat an eyelash. But if your shopping spree is threatened, you get ready to take down an army of men.”

Pam scoffed and rolled her eyes in annoyance, finally picking up on the fact that he was pulling her leg. “You wouldn’t understand,” she grumbled under he breath. “I’m going to go survey and shit.” The leggy vampire turned away from Eric and started walking towards the bar.

“Oh, and Doctor Ludwig is waiting for you. She said she had something important to tell you and wouldn’t give me a clue,” Pam informed, looking over her shoulder at Eric. At the mention of Doctor Ludwig, the older vampire raised his eyebrows in surprise. The doctor hadn’t told him she was dropping by.

Eric quickened his pace to his office, eager to listen to whatever information Doctor Ludwig had for him. He opened his office door to find her seated in a chair in front of his desk. The doctor looked at the door when she heard him walk in.

“Doctor Ludwig,” Eric nodded his head in greeting. The doctor merely nodded briskly in return. The vampire moved swiftly across the room and took his place behind his desk, sitting down so he could look at her properly. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

The doctor gave him a bored look, not entertained by his pleasant words. “I have good news and bad news. Both concerning Zayn. Which do you want first?”

“The good news,” Eric said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

“We found Zayn’s maker,” the doctor dropped the bomb on Eric. Eric immediately sat up straight in his seat.

“Who?” he asked, urgently. “Who is his maker?”

The doctor sighed, “That brings me to the bad news. I don’t know how you’ll take the new info that I’m about to tell you.”

“Rip it off like a bandaid,” Eric said, mentally bracing himself for the name he was about to hear. He swore to all the gods that he will end the life of Zayn’s good for nothing maker. Nothing will stand in his way. He might even keep this secret from Zayn until his maker was off the face of the Earth in case his adopted progeny tried to persuade Eric to spare his or her life.

“Lilith,” Doctor Ludwig said. That one name echoed through the room. _Lilith, Lilith, Lilith_. Eric’s eyes widened in horror. No, no, no, fuck, no!

“You’re shitting me,” Eric breathed out, his tone making it sound more like a question than a statement. The blond vampire got up and started to pace the length of his office in frustration, chanting a number of curse words under his breath as he tried to compute the information that was just given to him. “You can’t be serious. You can’t be fucking serious!”

Eric turned around to look at Doctor Ludwig who was sat on a chair in front of his desk. Her solemn look proved to the vampire that she was serious. “I ran the DNA a couple of times because even I didn’t believe it but it’s true.”

The vampire ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. He felt like scratching someone’s eyes out or even punching a wall. Normally, Eric would be in control of his emotions but Doctor Ludwig just gave him game-changing information. “Why did it have to be her? I can’t pull rank over her. I can’t keep Zayn safe from her. I can’t keep him safe from an Original.”

An Original was a vampire that wasn’t born by getting bitten and drained. They were the first generations of vampires to grace the Earth. They were the vampires that bit and drained humans before transferring their blood into the human, creating the next generation of vampires. They were the ones that made vampires like Eric exist today. However, over the years, the number of Originals lessened considerably as some had given up on living, claiming that they had enough of doing the same thing over and over.

Originals loved to live in clans. Eric had heard of Lilith’s clan. Exterior-wise, she seemed like an airhead, unaware of how serious things were at times. However, she had a sharp tongue. Her clan was ruthless, even more ruthless than Eric and the queen merged together. He was weak compared to her and that was very alarming.

Doctor Ludwig shrugged, a hint of concern on her face. “I can’t change it, Eric. I can’t change who Zayn’s maker is.” The vampire went back to pacing again.

“She must have been the one who sent her goons to ransack the witch’s place. That means she wants Zayn back but why? She left him alone for more than a decade so why does she want him back now?” Questions were running through Eric’s mind, one after the other. Did Zayn’s maker know that Zayn had abnormal abilities? Was that why she was hunting him down?

Zayn was in danger. He would have to comply with his maker’s command if it ever came down to it. Eric was fucked. The vampire cursed the heavens. Of course fate would give Eric the progeny of a vampire that could bring him to his demise.

“What do I do?” Eric asked out loud to no one in particular. “What _can_ I do?” For the first time in a long time, Eric felt weak and helpless. The last time he had felt that way was when he was on his deathbed before his maker came and turned him into a vampire. That was centuries ago. He had almost forgotten how fear felt.

“Sorry, Eric but I cannot be of help,” Doctor Ludwig said, getting up. “I’ll look into what being Lilith’s progeny might entail. I will be in touch soon.” The doctor excused herself out, leaving a distraught vampire in the room.

As soon as she exited, Pam came in. She had felt distress coming off of her maker in waves and was quite surprised because her maker had never given off such a vibe before. She was shocked to find him very shaken.

“What happened?” Pam asked, going into business mode. “What did she say?” When her maker didn’t answer, she pressed on, “What the fuck did she say, Eric?”

“Zayn’s maker is Lilith,” Eric blurted out.

“The fuck?” Pam cried out, a look of disbelief on her face. “What the actual fuck?”

“For the first time ever, I do not know how to handle this,” Eric told her. Pam grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake him.

“You’re Eric Northman. There must be something you can do.”

“Being Eric Northman doesn’t mean that I have every answer in the world, Pam,” Eric spat at her. “The only person I can ask for help is my maker, Godric. He might know Lilith. Heck, I won’t be surprised if there’s actually a lineage between all of us that leads back to Lilith.”

Pam blanched, “That’s just nasty.” Eric went to the phone he kept in his office and started to dial down his maker’s number. He hoped that his maker would be able to help them.

…

With written directions from Eric, the fivesome managed to arrive to the queen’s mansion safely. They did take a few wrong turns but they finally made it. Upon arriving, they were all awestruck. Compared to Eric’s mansion, the queen’s mansion resembled a mini palace. But then that was expected because she was the queen. The mansion had plains of greenery surrounding it. The lawn was mowed perfectly, the gardens looked beautiful. Honestly if she was trying to hide her wealth, she wasn’t doing a good job, especially with the huge marble statues of her that the five had spotted gracing her gardens.

They didn’t know where to go so Liam drove up the driveway, hoping to see someone that could tell them where they were supposed to meet the queen. Unfortunately, no one showed up. Liam had no choice but to park near the entrance because he did not know where the parking lot was. Harry got out of the car first and then Zayn, followed by the others.

“No welcoming committee?” Louis asked, tilting his head up to take a look at the exterior of the mansion. He straightened the jacket he was wearing. “I didn’t know you guys took the ‘being cold-blooded’ thing so seriously.”

Harry snorted, “Gosh, Lou, your puns are worse than mine.”

The demon rolled his eyes at the wizard. “At least my puns make sense.” Harry gasped at that statement.

“That’s not ni-“ Before Harry could finish his sentence, a few shadows suddenly moved. Something knocked into Harry and pinned him to the side of the car. The other shadows moved to do the same with the other boys. However, Zayn was fast on his feet.

Instead of letting himself get pinned to a solid surface, Zayn quickly used his strength and flipped them around, pinning the shadow to the ground. The shadow hissed at him and the Halfing was surprised to see that the attacker was a vampire. Looking up, he realized that all the shadows were vampires. This certainly wasn’t a warm welcome.

Before Zayn could contemplate his next move, a voice called out, “Boys, that is not how we treat our guests.” Immediately, the vampires who were pinning his boyfriends released them. The vampire under Zayn grunted so the Halfling stood up and extended a hand to help the vampire up. However, the other vampire merely eyes his hand with distaste and got up himself. Zayn rolled his eyes at his arrogance.

The queen sauntered out in a blood-red dress that hugged her body. Her blonde hair was tied up into a bun, exposing the smooth column of her neck. She had a huge smile on her face, her lips red from wearing lipstick (or blood). She threw her arms around Zayn, hugging him tightly. The Halfling patted her on the back awkwardly.

“My hero has arrived!” she announced, a hand pinching Zayn’s cheek. From the corner of his eye, Zayn spotted Louis stifling a laugh. “Sorry about them, I forgot to tell my guard that we had some guests.” The queen’s eyes flickered to Zayn’s companions.

“And who are you?” she asked, a coy smile on her face.

“They’re my dates,” Zayn answered quickly, not wanting the queen to make a move on his boyfriends. The queen let out a surprised gasp before slapping him on the chest. Her eyes were bright with interest.

“Oh, you dirty boy. Four of them?” She asked rhetorically. “Starting a harem, I see. How will I get the good-looking ones if you keep snatching them up?” The queen was beautiful. She could have men and women falling for her left and right. The Halfling just didn’t want his boyfriends falling for her. Zayn gave her a polite smile.

The queen gave each of the boys a once-over before she nodded in satisfaction. “I approve,” she said. Zayn resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “They certainly seem capable of topping you.”

Zayn wasn’t expecting that remark so he let out surprised squeak. The queen raised an eyebrow at him, thinking that his sudden noise was a noise of protest. “What? Don’t tell me you fuck them? Honey, you’re gorgeous but I do believe you bottom.”

From his peripheral vision, Zayn could see that Louis had a look of amusement on his face, Liam’s face was bright red, Harry seemed slightly taken aback and Niall was holding in his laughter. Zayn opened his mouth to protest, even if the queen’s assumptions were true but she merely patted his cheek.

“Now, enough chit-chat,” she said. “It’s time for dinner.” The queen turned around and started walking to the house with the five of them trailing a few paces behind her. Louis sidled closer to Zayn and put an arm around the Halfling’s waist.

“Bottom, huh?” he asked slyly, causing Zayn to blush from embarrassment.

“Shut up,” he hissed. Louis let out a sound of disapproval before slapping Zayn’s ass.

“Don’t be a bad boy or you’ll get punished,” he admonished Zayn before dragging the half-vampire so that they could keep up with the convoy. Zayn felt his face heat up even more. He felt flushed with embarrassment but Louis’ words were fucking hot.

How will he survive dinner?

…

Eric put the phone down and sighed. His call to his maker had been eventful. Godric had berated him, asking him why he took so long to contact him and why he wasn’t visiting. Of course, Eric had given him vague answers for every question. When he informed Godric of the problem at hand, his maker promised to be at Fangtasia within his earliest convenience.

Godric had not said whether or not he would be able to help but Eric didn’t mind. Having his maker’s presence close to him would help level his head so that he could make better decisions. Eric’s relationship with his maker was a peculiar one.

They were lovers, they were brothers, they were father and son. He loved his maker, even if he wouldn’t admit it. He put Godric on a pedestal and had full respect for him. During his early years as a vampire, Godric had taught him and shaped him into the person he was today.

However, Godric was the rational one of the pair. While Eric brought brute force to the table, Godric was the calm one. He would resort to violence only when he needed to. Eric preferred to use violence to intimidate his opponents, just like he had done when he was a Viking. Godric was a lot shorter than Eric and looked younger, causing Eric to believe that that was the reason why his maker didn’t share the same views he did.

Eric just hoped that Godric could get here sooner. He really needed to come up with a plan and map out all of the possible scenarios. Fuck being Eric Northman, ruthless vampire who has killed thousands without breaking a sweat. Now was the time to be Eric Northman, adopted maker of Zayn.

Eric would be damned if he let Lilith come back into contact with Zayn after all she had put him to. She didn’t deserve an ounce of his time.

…

The interior of the queen’s mansion was magnificent. Everything looked awfully expensive and that caused the five to keep their hands to themselves in fear of accidentally breaking something. The followed the queen down spacious halls and passed a lot of rooms before finally coming to the dining room.

There was a large oval table, laden with plates and cutlery. A few lit candles were placed on the table. Everything had a gold accent for some reason. The queen took her place at the head of the table and Zayn and his boyfriends moved around to get to their seats. Zayn sat closest to the queen, not wanting to appear rude. His boyfriends took up the seats on his side.

“My other guest hasn’t arrived yet,” the queen said. Zayn vaguely remembered her mentioning that. “So, if you don’t mind, why don’t we chat while we wait for her to arrive?”

Zayn nodded, having no choice but to oblige anyway.

The queen was a whirlwind to take in. She could ask you one question about yourself and still manage to turn it back to be about her. In Zayn’s opinion, she was doing most of the talking while he and his boyfriends added their input occasionally. She was a good host, perhaps too good.

The Halfling dodged questions from her that were too close to home. He didn’t want to accidentally give anything away or blurt out his secret. Her tendency to turn the spotlight back on her certainly helped. Liam, Louis, Niall and Harry joined the conversations at some point. Louis interjected with slightly sarcastic remarks that had Zayn worried that he might have signed their death sentences or something.

However, the queen was too distracted by his other boyfriends to notice. Zayn noted that she was in love with Niall’s accent even if she didn’t understand what he was talking about. She also loved listening to Harry’s slow and deep drawl. Liam’s politeness also kept her entertained.

The Halfling also noticed that she had upped her ante on hosting and seemed as if she was flirting with his boyfriends. She had giggled at Niall’s words (annoyingly, if he might add) and she sent a flirty smile to Harry (who smiled back because he thought it was a friendly smile, not because he was interested in her or something). The queen even complimented Liam’s muscles (he even flexed for her) and Louis’ sharp features (to which he gave her one of his smirks).

To say that Zayn was fuming in his seat was an understatement. At some point, the conversation turned back to Zayn as the topic. He was grateful because the queen wasn’t flirting with them anymore (he might rip her hair off if she did without caring about the consequences) but he also felt like the world was out to get him because they were suddenly conversing about his position as a bottom.

Well, the queen was doing most of the talking but that didn’t make Zayn feel any less uncomfortable. She even said that she was not opposed of watching them do the frickle frackle together. Luckily, a servant dashed into the room to inform the queen that her guest had arrived. The queen stood up, causing them all to straighten up in their seats as they heard the sounds of footsteps making their way to the dining room.

In walked a trio of people. They looked regal and gave off an authoritative air. They were all women and looked very intimidating. The queen smiled at them. “Welcome,” she greeted them. The trio merely nodded at her in greeting and took their seats at the table, not waiting for the queen to invite them.

Zayn gulped, they must be some powerful people if they could get away with disrespecting the queen like that. Zayn looked at the one in front of him. She had wavy jet black hair and piercing green eyes. Her skin was as white as snow and her lips as red as blood. He had a distinctive feeling as if the fairytale princess Snow White was sitting in front of him. He also felt as if he knew her.

Before she could notice that he was staring, he moved his gaze to her other companions. Each looked as cold as the first one but slightly less so. One had dark brown hair and one had red hair. They all had green eyes and flawless skin apparently. However, the other two didn’t exude as much confidence and authority as the one in front of Zayn.

“Let me introduce everyone,” the queen said, taking her seat. She gestured to the two. “This is Rachel and Elizabeth.” And then she gestured to the one in front of Zayn.

“And this is Lilith.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wellll, bet you expected that. Like Doctor Ludwig, I ripped it off like a bandaid. Zayn's about to know his family history any time soon. So, what did you think? It's gonna be a whirlwind of emotions after this with the appearance of Eric's maker etc. Writing pam and Eric in a scene together again was entertaining. What do you think will happen now that Lilith is here? Poor Zaynie is gonna have a rough couple of chapters. I think.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry. I wanted to update a week ago but my brain refused to let me write. I wanted to update after watching Zayn's performance on The Tonight Show but I couldn't do it. The last few weeks had been rough on me and my productivity. The whole chapter is already in my head but I just couldn't write it down. Even now, I feel like I'm presenting you with a bad chapter because I am so desperate to update but suddenly, I'm sick and I can't think right but I pushed myself to write the chapter. If it's awful, I would like to apologize in advance. Being sick turns my brain to mush and I can't find the right words to describe things. Everything is unedited. On with the chapter!

The room was so silent that you could probably hear a pin drop. The queen looked at all of her guests, confused as to why none of them were speaking. Zayn and his boyfriends were looking at the new guests uneasily and the queen suddenly figured out why. She let out an annoyed huff, “Girls, really?”

As if a switched had been flipped, the three vampire guests broke into smiles and laughs. Zayn, Harry, Louis, Niall and Liam looked at them with befuddlement. Rachel was full out laughing, cackling as she set her elbows on the table before burying her face in her hands. Elizabeth was fanning herself as her face had seemed to heat up from bursting into laughter and Lilith had a smile on her face.

“Sorry, we just wanted to have fun,” Elizabeth spoke, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder. Her green eyes were filled with mirth and her gaze flittered over them, taking them in. “I didn’t know that we could manage to be so intimidating to your other guests.”

The queen gave Lilith a pointed look. “Was this your idea?”

Before Lilith could answer, Rachel waved her hand around frantically. “Actually, it was mine. I thought it would be fun. We may be Originals but girl, we still know how to prank and stuff. And this is a prank well done. ”

Zayn’s eyebrows furrowed. What was an Original? He would have to ask Eric once he got home. However, Zayn wouldn’t have to wait that long because Niall suddenly opened his mouth and asked, “What’s an Original?”

The blond and his boyfriends turned to look at Zayn, expecting an explanation from the half-vampire. Zayn flushed under their combined gazes and seemed to shrink into his seat. He didn’t know what an Original was? He had never even heard of the term before. What was he going to tell them?

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, his eyes trained on the table in front of him. He was pretty sure that his cheeks were already red with embarrassment.

“You don’t know?” Lilith asked from her spot opposite him. Zayn slowly raised his head up, meeting her gaze before shaking his head slowly. Her eyebrows furrowed together and her lips were pressed into a thin line.

“Who is your maker?” she asked curiously.

“Eric Northman,” Zayn replied. For some reason, he felt uneasy. When he had to lie about Eric being his maker before, he had always been able to do it without any guilt. However, this time, it felt wrong. He felt as if he had betrayed someone, stabbed them in the back or something. He watched as Lilith raised an eyebrow, as if surprised.

“Northman,” she muttered under her breath, nodding slowly. She focused her attention back on Zayn. “I didn’t know he got another progeny.”

Zayn shrugged, “It was a few years ago so I’m still new, I guess.” Lilith tilted her head to the side and Zayn felt suddenly uncomfortable with the way she showed interest in him.

“And he never mentioned what we were, what Originals were?” she questioned him. Zayn racked his brain, in case he had actually already heard the word but didn’t remember. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. The Halfling shook his head.

“Well, Originals are the very first generation of vampires,” the queen spoke, taking control of the situation. “They are the first generation to turn humans into vampires.” She explained the term simply, making sure that they would be able to grasp the meaning well. The queen made a dissatisfied sound after she finished her explanation.

“I wonder why Eric never mentioned the Originals to you, Zayn. They’re very important and strong people,” the queen said. “He shouldn’t be neglecting vampire history like this.” Zayn could only shrug in reply and his gaze fell to his lap.

“Zayn? Your name is Zayn?” Lilith’s sudden question made the Halfling look up.

“Yeah,” he answered, suddenly getting defensive. He had met people who told him that they hated his name and the link it had to his heritage. Was Lilith one of those people? “Is there a problem?” Lilith shook her head hastily.

“No,” she denied quickly before she smiled, not taking offence to the way Zayn had basically snapped at her. “It doesn’t bother me at all.” Her tone didn’t suit her. It sounded too lively and bright. “It’s a beautiful name. I can see why Eric chose you. He always had an eye for pretty things.”

Somehow, Zayn sensed that her words were a lie. Eric was a Viking. Choosing things that looked pretty somehow didn’t fit his modus operandi. Zayn knew for a fact that Eric chose humans that had strong character. Pam was proof of that.

The queen suddenly slapped her forehead as if suddenly remembering something. Zayn looked at her, slightly alarmed. He was pretty sure that she had slapped her forehead with as much force needed to flip the table they were sitting at. “I forgot to introduce Zayn and his boyfriends,” she explained.

“This is Niall, the blond Irish spirit,” the queen started introducing his boyfriends one by one. She used excessive adjectives to describe them. For example, Harry was the curly-haired, charming wizard with green eyes to die for; Louis was the devilishly handsome blue-eyed demon with a sharp tongue that could slay you and drag you to hell and Liam was the muscular, big, bad wolf with a cuddly personality.

“Four boyfriends,” Elizabeth said with fascination. Rachel let out a catcall, winking in Zayn’s direction and causing the Halfling to wish that the floor would swallow him up.

The queen rang a bell and servants walked in, carrying multiple dishes. They laid the dishes in front of each of the guests. Zayn heard Niall breathe in a sigh of relief when the food presented in front of them was normal human food. The Halfling chuckled to himself. _What did Niall think he was going to be served? Blood in a soup bowl?_

Picking up her fork and knife, the queen invited them to dig into their food. Apparently, she had told her chefs to prepare the most exquisite meals they had ever made. The clattering sound of cutlery colliding with plates filled the room as everyone started to eat. Servants glided into and out of the room, filling the empty glasses in front of them with wine and making sure that they were all satisfied.

Taking his first bite, Zayn almost moaned out at the taste of the food. The queen was right, it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. Halfway through the meal, Elizabeth put her knife down, reaching for her glass of wine.

“So,” she started to say, setting down her glass. She smiled when she knew that she managed to get everyone’s attention on her. “Zayn, what’s it like having four boyfriends? You have an alpha, a spirit, a wizard and a demon. The sex must be kinky.”

“Yeah, I was wondering that too,” Rachel interjected enthusiastically. Zayn felt like speeding out of the room. He was pretty sure that they were about to start conversing about his sex life again with the way the queen was suddenly bouncing in her seat excitedly. The Halfling looked down at his plate, feeling positively annoyed.

A sudden hand on his thigh grabbed his attention. Zayn looked up to see Niall giving him a comforting look and the Halfling felt like he could relax.

“As much as I love sex, let’s leave Zayn alone, yeah?” Lilith asked. “Not everyone is comfortable discussing it.” Zayn looked at her, visibly surprised that she was sticking up for him. They were practically strangers. She gave her vampire friends a reprimanding glare and they backed off.

“How’s life with Eric Northman?” Lilith asked, moving the topic somewhere sex-free. Zayn launched into his usual speech of how being Eric’s progeny was both hard and entertaining. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help but constantly feel as if he was wronging someone.

Dinner flowed smoothly as the queen recounted the tale of how Zayn saved her life. The Originals seemed thoroughly impressed with his deed. They showered him with compliments because although he was a young vampire, he seemed to have showcased as much strength as his maker. Their statement made Zayn realize that he was going to have to keep an eye out on how much of his ability that he uses. If he wasn’t careful, he might accidentally expose himself.

Lilith was actually a great person to talk to. She wasn’t as bubbly as Elizabeth and Rachel but she did have some of her own hidden charm. Zayn found it easier to talk to her. She felt like a mother to him, a mother that he never had. She asked him questions about his interest and looked genuinely immersed in his stories.

After dinner, dessert and a few rounds of wine (Niall accepted the queen’s gracious offer when she noted that the Irish could hold their liquor well and wanted to test that theory), it was time for Zayn and his boyfriends to go. It was nearing morning and the vampires needed to sleep.

Zayn stood up, ready to leave. When Niall went to stand up, he stumbled slightly and Zayn quickly went to support him. It was clear that the spirit was slightly intoxicated. Harry went to take Niall off of his hands because he knew that the Irishman could be dead weight when he was drunk. Zayn gave him a grateful look.

As they all filed out of the dining room, a hand on his shoulder stopped Zayn in his movements. He turned around to see Lilith. She gave him a hesitant look, “May I speak to you alone?”

Zayn was aware that his boyfriends were waiting for him so he turned and told them to head to the car first and take care of Niall. Then, he nodded at the female vampire. She walked a bit further away from where her friends and the queen were lightly conversing.

“I had a lot of fun talking to you, Zayn,” she said, sounding earnest. Zayn smiled at her.

“Likewise,” he replied. She suddenly appeared nervous, fiddling with her fingers as she contemplated something. Something as simple as that made her seem a lot younger than she was moments before.

“I would really like to see you again,” Zayn’s eyes widened at her statement. She sounded like she was romantically interested in him. Before he could remind her that he had four boyfriends and was obviously gay, she spoke again, “I feel like we can be great friends, you know. And I need a guy friend because all of my friends are girls.”

Zayn relaxed. She wasn’t interested in him in that sense. Good. “Well, I work at a bar called Fangtasia. Eric owns it. Maybe you can swing by tomorrow night.”

Lilith’s green eyes brightened, “Yes, great idea!” She gave Zayn a sudden hug, causing him to tense up, surprised. However, her presence felt comforting and familiar so he relaxed into it and hugged her back. Lilith pulled back.

“All right, wouldn’t want to keep your boyfriends waiting. I’ll see you soon,” she walked away from him to join her friends. Zayn nodded his head at her and said his goodbyes before excusing himself and walking out of the room.

Once he joined his boyfriends in the car, Louis eyed him. “What took you so long?” he asked curiously.

“Lilith wanted to meet up again,” he answered. He could tell by the sudden way they all turned rigid that his boyfriends had taken his sentence the wrong way as he had with Lilith a few moments ago.

“Oh, did you tell Lilith that you were taken and gay?” Louis spoke, sounding possessive. Zayn giggled at his boyfriend’s antic.

“Don’t worry, she already friend-zoned me,” the Halfling joked, easing the demon’s worries. Louis flicked Zayn’s nose in response.

“Don’t do that again,” he scolded half-heartedly. Zayn gave Louis a wide smile, feeling victorious that he managed to pull his leg.

“No promises.”

…

“Eric!” a voice called out, causing the blond vampire to look up from where he was standing alone, sorting through the mail at the bar. It was almost time for the bar to open and Eric had been feeling anxious the entire day, awaiting the arrival of his maker. There was a feeling in his gut that made him worry that something regarding Zayn had gone wrong.

Eric was relieved when he saw his maker walk into the bar. His maker was a short man. Or rather, teenager would be the best word to describe him as he looked incredibly young for a vampire that was centuries older than Eric. His maker had short black hair and pale white skin that contrasted with Eric’s blond hair and slightly darker skin.

The vampire crossed the room and pulled his maker into a hug, uncaring if anyone walked in and saw him acting like he actually had a heart. If anyone said anything about it, he would gladly rip their throats out. Godric was his maker and always made him feel something akin to joy. His maker chuckled at his display of affection and patted his back.

“How are you, my son?” Godric asked, looking at Eric fondly. Pulling back from the embrace, he made a show of scanning Eric from head to toe before saying, “Pam has certainly swayed your fashion sense. You dress better now than you ever did centuries ago.”

Eric rolled his eyes playfully, “Centuries ago, they didn’t have all these brands that Pam goes crazy over.”

Godric gave him a thoughtful look and looked around, “Where is your progeny anyway? Or should I say, progenies?”

“Pam went out for a while and Zayn isn’t here yet,” Eric told him. As if on cue, Fangtasia’s doors opened to reveal Zayn and his boyfriends. They were chatting amongst themselves but all conversations came to a halt when they saw Eric chatting with a vampire they had never seen before.

“Even though I am not your true maker, you seem to come right on time as if I summoned you,” Zayn gave Eric a shocked look, glancing towards the unfamiliar vampire. Why was Eric throwing his secret around out in the open?

Seeing Zayn’s bewildered and worried expression as well as the same look from the other four supernaturals, Eric quickly cleared up the air, “He knows, Zayn.” With that confirmation from Eric, Zayn somewhat relaxed. He still sent Eric a questioning gaze, nonverbally asking who the other vampire was.

Eric smiled at his maker before turning back to Zayn and his entourage. “Boys, this is Godric, my maker,” he introduced the vampire to them. Zayn tensed up again. He had heard Eric speak of his maker countless of times and Eric told great tales of his maker. Zayn had never met him before as Eric had never asked him to.

The Halfling felt edgy, unsure of what he should do. This was Godric, the vampire who taught Eric everything he knew. Should he hug Godric? Should he sink to his knees and start groveling? Luckily, Godric made that choice for him when he suddenly came forward and brought Zayn into a hug. The Halfling froze slightly before he awkwardly returned the hug.

From the tales of Godric he had heard, Zayn expected the vampire to be buff and scary-looking. However, he just looked like a teenager who was Zayn’s age. He didn’t seem threatening at all but the Halfling didn’t want to test that. When Godric released him, Zayn gave him a small smile, still hesitant and feeling self-conscious.

“And who are these four?” Eric’s maker asked inquisitively as he peered at them over Zayn’s shoulder.

Zayn stepped back, “These are my boyfriends; Niall, Louis, Harry and Liam.” Each supernatural waved hello at Godric when their name was mentioned. Godric gave them a stern look.

“I hope you’re treating him well,” the vampire said, sounding overly protective. “He may not be my real grandson but I already care for him as much and I would appreciate it if I didn’t have to castrate you four.”

“They’re wonderful,” Zayn said, feeling overwhelmed by Godric’s words. He felt warm on the inside when Godric admitted that he already cared about Zayn even if he had just met him. Godric gave the other four supernaturals a long, hard look before finally nodding.

“Good,” he said, satisfied. “Now, Eric, let’s get down to business.” Before Zayn could ask what they were up to, Eric gave Zayn a list of jobs to do.

“I need you to go through these letters and see which ones are important,” the vampire said, handing Zayn the bundle of white envelopes he had been working on earlier. “Then, you need to supervise the club tonight. I don’t think Pam will get here any time before eleven and I need to settle some things.”

Zayn frowned. “I won’t get to entertain my new friend then,” he said. Eric raised an eyebrow.

“What new friend?” he asked.

“I met some people at the queen’s dinner last night,” Zayn explained. “They’re Originals. Speaking of Originals, why haven’t you ever said anything about them?”

As soon as he heard the word ‘Originals’, Eric had blanked out. _Shit! Zayn already met Originals. Zayn was already on their radar. Which Originals did Zayn meet?_ The older vampire was too busy worrying in his head that he didn’t hear Zayn calling his name until a hand waved in front of his face.

“What?” Zayn gave him a confused look.

“You spaced out,” the Halfling said. “Is something wrong? Was it something I said?”

Eric grabbed Zayn by his shoulders. “Who did you meet, Zayn? What are their names?” he asked, staring directly into Zayn’s eyes. He sounded frantic and slightly distressed which was weird for Zayn because Eric had never sounded like that before.

“Eric, are you all right?” Zayn asked, becoming worried. Why was his maker fretting over the Originals?

“Tell me their names,” Eric urged.

Zayn’s eyebrows furrowed but he answered anyway, “Their names are Elizabeth, Rachel and Lilith.”

And just like that, Eric felt as if the world was suddenly collapsing. Zayn had already met his maker but by the way he spoke about her, he still hadn’t known that Lilith was his maker. According to Zayn, Lilith was on her way to Fangtasia. She would probably screw with Zayn’s mind, feeding him lies and sob stories so that when the truth was revealed, Zayn would somewhat forgive her.

Why did the universe love to screw with him?

Before Eric could start cursing and destroying his own bar, Godric spoke up, “Eric, you should tell him.”

This made Zayn look even more puzzled. “Tell me what?”

“No, Godric,” Eric protested. If he told Zayn, he didn’t know how the Halfling would react. “He doesn’t need to hear the truth now.”

“What truth?” Unfortunately, Zayn’s question fell on deaf ears.

“He has a right to know,” Godric stressed out. “Tell him or I will make you tell him.”

Eric scowled at him, “Don’t you dare.” He and his maker had a staring competition.

Godric gave Eric one last challenging look before saying, ”Eric, I command you to tell the truth about Zayn’s maker.”

Eric groaned, feeling betrayed by his own maker. He wouldn’t be able to resist a Maker’s command. He felt his lips move on their own accord.

“Zayn, Lilith is your maker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that at least something in this chapter was salvageable. I was supposed to include Lilith meeting Eric but my brain just shut down on me. Sorry for the shitty ending to the chapter, I just felt so tired and needed to end it somehow. I hope you like it. What do you think is going to happen? How will Zayn react? How will Eric react to meeting Lilith? By the way, I have been working on another Zianourry fic which features omega!zayn and it's Zayn-centric. The others are all alphas. I don't know if I'll post it as one long fic or as chaptered fics. Keep an eye out for that. Tell me your thoughts below


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Battle of the makers... sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAAAAMN Daniel, back at it again with another chapter!  
> Sorry I had to, aha. Anyway, I felt like updating and so I did. This chapter is wild to be honest. I don't know if I was supposed to make it turn out this way but oh well. Excuse any mistakes I made. I've been feeling slightly anxious this week because on Friday is my driver's test and I hope I do well. Anyway, on with the storyyyy

Zayn felt as if someone pulled the rug from under him, both figuratively and literally. The Halfling stumbled back, feeling as if his body was slightly unbalanced. In fact, even his head felt fucked suddenly. Large hands on his waist steadied him. Zayn looked behind him to see Liam staring at him, concerned. The Halfling put his hands on Liam’s, stroking the skin there with his thumb. The action made both him and Liam much calmer.

The half-vampire chanced a look at his other boyfriends. They were all staring at him with varying degrees of worry but worry nonetheless. Zayn took in a deep breath, trying to keep his vision from swimming. He knew that his heartbeat rate had spiked up, he knew that his human blood was trying to supply oxygen to all parts of his body. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Half of his blood was useless vampire blood that couldn’t conduct oxygen.

“I told you he shouldn’t have heard the news now,” Eric snapped at his maker. His eyes kept glancing over to Zayn, making sure that nothing serious was happening. The vampire was glad that Zayn’s four boyfriends were trying to calm him down. He had heard Zayn’s heart speed up and the half-vampire’s heart wasn’t equipped for a shock like this. “He isn’t ready. This new information will confuse him. He won’t know where his loyalties lie.”

Godric narrowed his eyes at Eric, annoyance clearly in his features. He said, “And who are you to decide that for him? You are not his real maker. He has a right to know who his real maker is. He has a right to make a decision whether to go back to his real maker or stay with you. “

His maker looked at Eric with kind eyes, understanding and sympathy replacing the irritated look he had a few moments ago. With a much softer tone, Godric added, “You’re not prepared for him to leave, are you, Eric? You care deeply for him. I might even say you love him as much as you love Pam and I.”

Eric’s eyebrows furrowed, “Don’t use words I don’t understand.” Godric rubbed his hand up and down Eric’s forearm with a patient look on his face.

“Fuck,” they heard. They all looked at Zayn who was staring at the floor, eyes wide. His hands went from rubbing the backs of Liam’s hands to gripping them tightly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Zayn cursed, each curse sounding less harsh and more desperate, more lost and confused.

“I—“ Zayn looked up suddenly, eyes wild and unfocused. “I don’t—I—help.” Eric didn’t know what he was pleading for. The Halfling looked close to tears. Zayn blindly reached out for Louis, grabbing the demon’s arms.

“Help, Lou,” he begged, looking at the demon’s blue eyes. “Please, please, please.” Louis had a helpless look on his face. He didn’t know what the Halfling meant by help. He didn’t understand what Zayn wanted. It took Liam a few moments but he finally figured out (maybe. He didn’t really know. It’s a wild guess.) what Zayn needed from Louis.

“Lou, I think he wants you to go into his brain and calm him down,” Liam said. Louis looked up at him, shocked.

“What?”

Liam repeated himself. “He wants you to calm him down. Use your powers or something. Hack into his brain and calm him down forcefully.”

“I’ve never done that with my powers before. Demons wreak havoc, not spread peace,” Louis protested with Zayn in his arms still begging at him. The Halfling clawed at his shirt. “Can’t Harry do it?”

“I don’t know any calming spells,” Harry said, starting to panic. “I’m not prepared for this kind of situation. I don’t remember anything I’ve learnt.”

“Dammit, Haz,” Louis cursed. “The one time your extensive knowledge in Wizard Medics 101 would have probably paid off and you fail to remember anything. Goddammit.”

“Can’t you try an Alpha command?” Harry asked Liam. The werewolf looked at Harry as if he was crazy.

“They work on omegas, not vampires,” Liam replied with a look on his face that said ‘the fuck, Harry?’

“What are we gonna do?” Niall asked, eyes trained on Zayn. The Halfling had stopped begging. Instead, he was crying into Louis’ chest, hands tearing at his hair. The spirit’s hands immediately shot forward, removing Zayn’s hands from his hair to stop him from pulling his own hair out. He pressed himself against Zayn’s back, making Zayn become sandwiched between him and Louis.

“Breathe,” he whispered into Zayn’s ear, his tone as calm as possible. “Breathe, babe. We need you to breathe, yeah?” Niall watched Zayn take in large gulps of air. It seemed like it was working but Niall was worried that the half-vampire would start hyperventilating again.

Before the spirit could tell his boyfriend to take in breaths in time with him, a voice interrupted, “I can help.”

Eric snarled as soon as he saw who it was. “Lilith,” he looked like he was ready to murder a bitch. “Get the fuck out of my club.”

Noticing Eric’s hostility against her, Lilith only rolled her eyes. “Fuck off, Northman. I can help,” she said, coming closer towards them. “After all, he is my progeny.”

Eric’s blood boiled. _Oh how dare she—_

Godric was quick to put his hand on Eric’s shoulder, giving him a look that told him to calm down. His maker then subtly gestured to their surrounding and Eric soon remembered that they were standing in the middle of his club that was slowly filling up with people.

“We need to get to my office,” the blond vampire said, urgency in his tone once he saw a few patrons look over at them and start to talk amongst themselves. He led the way to his office and the others trailed behind him.

Once they were securely in Eric’s office, the blond vampire swiftly shut the door and locked it. Louis sat down on the couch with Zayn still in his arms, clutching him tightly. Lilith came to stand in front of them. She knelt in front of Zayn and pulled his head towards her, making him face her.

Zayn’s eyes were glazed over, tear tracks running down his cheeks. The Original wiped his tears with her thumbs. “Hush, baby,” she soothed him slowly, running her hand over his face and through his hair. “You’re all right. You’re okay. I’m here now.”

Zayn sniffled and closed his eyes. Lilith kept repeating the words over and over until Zayn reopened his eyes. Everyone could see that his eyes were more focused now and he had stopped crying.

“You all right?” Lilith asked to be sure. Zayn nodded, looking shyly into her green eyes. Lilith smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

Suddenly, she was wrenched away from Zayn and roughly pulled to her feet. Eric gripped her arm and growled in her face. “Stay way from him.”

“Eric,” Godric started to say in a warning tone. Eric loosened his grip on Lilith’s arm but still scowled at her.

Lilith pulled back her arm, glaring angrily at Eric. “Stay away from him? He’s my progeny. He was panicking moments ago and none of you could fucking calm him down. Only I could! Why? Because I’m his fucking maker.”

Eric looked furious. He felt Godric’s hand on his shoulder again but he merely shook it off. “You don’t fucking deserve to be his maker because you fucking left him in a village in the middle of fucking nowhere to fend for himself while he had a terrible childhood. Where the fuck were you then? A good maker would have felt the pain he was going through and fucking saved him from that hell.”

Lilith narrowed her eyes at Eric, “I had my reasons why I wasn’t there for him. I cared too much than to put him in danger. That’s why I went away.”

“Fucking bullshit,” Eric spat at her, ignoring the warning bells Godric was sending to him through their bond. “Now, you’ve come back and sent your cronies after him and one of them killed a witch.”

Lilith looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You sent your cronies on a mission to find him. One of them caught wind of my experiments with Doctor Ludwig and—“

“You’ve been experimenting on him?” Lilith asked, appalled. She sat down next to Zayn, pulling him out of Louis’ arms and into hers. She held onto him like a protective mother bear. “You’ve been experimenting on my baby? Why the fuck would you do that?”

“We only took a few blood samples to see the extent of his abilities,” Eric retorted. It’s not like they poured chemicals on him, please. “And he is not your baby.”

“Biologically, he is,” Lilith argued. “He shares my DNA.”

“You’ve been a bad maker. You shouldn’t be allowed to just waltz back into his life and fuck it up all over again.” Eric crossed his arms. “Your cronies should pay for what they’ve done.”

“I didn’t send anyone after him,” Lilith said. “I didn’t even know he was here. I was only here to see the queen.”

“Oh so you weren’t actually looking for Zayn then? What an _amazing_ maker,” Eric said sarcastically. “Who knows when you’d finally remember you had a progeny if that dinner with the queen didn’t happen.” Lilith huffed, offended.

“For your information, I was looking for him. I just didn’t expect to see him here,” Lilith clarified. “I came to see the queen. She said she had other guests over.” Lilith looked at Zayn, stroking his face gently. Then, she turned back to Eric but still kept stroking Zayn’s face. “I saw Zayn and I had a moment. He looked so similar to his father that I was sure he was my progeny. When he said his name was Zayn, I felt even surer. But then, he said he was the progeny of Eric Northman and I felt something stab my heart.”

“Me too,” Zayn said softly, making their attention go to him. Lilith lifted his head up slightly.

“What was that?” she asked. Zayn met her eyes slowly.

“I felt that too. I felt like I was betraying someone when I told you I was Eric’s progeny.”

Lilith smiled at him, “That’s because you and I share a bond. You’re my progeny, my son, my little baby. And I’m your maker, your mother, your protector.”

Eric scoffed. “You did a shit job protecting him.” Lilith looked over at Eric with an aggravated look on her face.

“I left him with his father, I was trying to protect him,” she protested. “ I left for a reason.”

“Do tell,” Eric urged. “Tell us your oh-so noble reason as to why you left.”

“That’s information I would rather share with Zayn and Zayn alone,” Lilith said. Before they could continue their bickering, Liam interrupted.

“Lilith said that she didn’t send anyone after Zayn. That means that Zayn is still in danger,” the werewolf spoke, making the tense energy in the room dissipate and it was replaced by a feeling of nervousness. Eric pondered his words for a moment before he nodded.

“What danger?” Lilith asked.

“Someone’s after Zayn. They killed one of the witches who were helping Doctor Ludwig with the experiments. They ransacked Zayn’s files. We thought they were from you so since you’ve denied it, then someone else is after him,” Eric explained.

“Zayn can stay with me then, I’ll keep him safe,” Lilith said brightly. Eric rolled his eyes and sighed as if Lilith was forgetting something important.

“You need sleep during the day. How can you protect Zayn then?” Eric asked. The Original pursed her lips, suddenly deep in thought. Lilith hadn’t thought of that.

“That’s why Zayn lives with his four boyfriends,” Eric continued. “They can protect him during the day.”

Lilith looked like she was going to protest but she didn’t. “Oh, that’s cool. I guess he’s safer that way.” Then, she looked up at everyone. “I need you all to leave because I want to talk to Zayn alone.” Eric shook his head in disagreement. There was no way he was going to leave Zayn with Lilith.

“You’ll feed him lies,” he said, ready to pull Zayn out of Lilith’s arms. Louis looked around at his boyfriends. They were all thinking the same thing: get Zayn out of there if a catfight between two vampires happened.

“No, I won’t,” Lilith denied Eric’s statement. She looked at Zayn and nudged him gently. “Go on, Zayn. Tell him you want him to leave us alone to talk.”

To be honest, Zayn didn’t want Eric to go away. He needed Eric to be there with him when he talked to Lilith. Lilith may be his maker but Zayn had grew close to Eric. Eric felt like his maker too. His loyalty laid with Eric first because Eric’s familiar, Eric’s constant.

Lilith just came into his life like a hurricane. He didn’t know whether to fully trust her or not. A voice in his head said yes because she was his maker. But he really didn’t want to blindly trust anyone just because they were linked to him in a way. He wanted to build his trust on understanding and shit, like he did with Eric.

Zayn also wanted his boyfriends to be in the room with him so that he would feel relaxed and more comfortable. He didn’t want to make anyone leave. So, Zayn stayed silent. Lilith nudged him again and he moved slightly out of her embrace.

“I-I want him to be here,” he spoke softly. Eric gave Lilith a victorious smirk as if to say ‘I told you so’. That didn’t sit well with Lilith. A beeping started to sound in Zayn’s ears, starting off soft but continuously getting louder.

“Zayn, I told you to tell him to get out,” she said in a grave tone, somehow audible over the beeping in his ears. Zayn averted his eyes from her gaze, looking at the floor instead and shook his head.

“No,” he protested. The beeping increased and Zayn felt as if that was all he could hear. Why was there a beeping sound? What was going on? Was his heart going into overdrive again? Lilith’s eyebrows furrowed. _No?_

“As your maker, I command you to tell Eric Northman and the rest of the occupants in the room to get out.” Everything fell silent. The beeping, the atmosphere, everything. Zayn couldn’t hear a thing.

However, the half-vampire felt compelled to do something. To open his mouth and say what Lilith had said. His mouth opened automatically but Zayn forced it to close shut. This happened a couple of times, making him look like a fish out of water. His mouth opened but no sound came out.

One of his hands came to his throat, squeezing there as if to stop any speech from flowing out his mouth. He let out strangled sounds, random gasps that were cut off here and there. The Halfling gritted his teeth, determined not to talk. A throbbing started up in his head.

From a slight throb, he suddenly felt as if someone was hammering down on his brain. Zayn clutched his head. It hurt, it fucking hurt. The Halfling closed his eyes in pain and tried to focus on getting rid of it. He felt warm liquid run down from his nose. It flowed over his cupid’s bow and onto his lips.

Zayn’s tongue darted out. It tasted something metallic. Zayn suspected that his nose was bleeding. However, he couldn’t focus much on it because his head was hurting so damn bad. The beeping was back in his ears. He felt like he couldn’t think straight, couldn’t hear properly. The half-vampire experimentally opened his eyes but his vision was blurry.

He couldn’t even see right. His chest tightened as if someone was squeezing his heart. Zayn couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe. Pain was everywhere and he couldn’t fucking breathe. There was a vision in his head of a kettle hissing on a stove. With every increase in pain, the kettle hissed louder.

“Stop it. You’re hurting him!” he heard someone shout. It sounded like Harry. Was it Harry? Zayn didn’t know. What he did know was that his heart felt like it was slowing down. He felt hands on his body, shaking him.

He felt hands around his neck, strangling him. He was going to die.

He was going to die.

He was going to fucking—

“I retract my command.”

Zayn gulped in air like his life depended on it. Oh wait, it did. He started to hiccup at some point. His eyes remained unfocused. The only thought in his mind was that he could breathe again. Someone wiped his nose with a cloth and rubbed his back.

The Halfling looked over and saw that it was Louis. He looked around him to see Harry sobbing into Niall, the spirit trying to soothe him. He saw Liam covering his face with his hands, breathing harshly. He saw Godric slumped in one of Eric’s chairs, a defeated look on his face. He saw Eric pinning his maker to the wall.

Eric slowly let Lilith go. He gave Zayn a look filled with concern before looking back at Lilith, warily. “I hope you’re happy,” Zayn heard him say to Lilith. Lilith was looking at Zayn, not once removing her gaze. She looked at Zayn with something akin to disappointment.

Zayn didn’t want her to be disappointed. He didn’t like the feeling. Why was she disappointed? Could he make it stop?

Suddenly the door to the office opened and Pam walked in. She stopped abruptly once she saw the many occupants of the room. After surveying and assessing each of their faces as well as feeling the tenseness in the air, she sighed.

“What the fuck did I miss this time?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope it was good. How many times do you think the word 'fuck/ fucking' was said? What do you think about this chapter and what will happen? Comment down below, yeah? I love your feedback and I read every single one. I just don't reply sowwy. Anyway, if you want to yell at me further, visit my tumblr: theactualzaynmalik . Hope you have a nice dayyyy. oh and keep a look out for that omega!zayn fic ayeee


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the recent events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii! I am so sorry for the long wait. I've just been having a few bad days. I keep telling myself to update but something always happened and made me feel discouraged. I don't know what to make of this chapter. It's not leaving a mark in my mind and I feel like it is terrible. Excuse any mistakes I made because I had to reread the last chapter as I had left this story for a long time. Some of the previous plans I had for this chapter may have been lost over the past few days so it isn't turning out like I wanted it to. Forgive me yeah? Anyway, on to the chapter.

“We’re taking him home,” Liam said as he watched Louis console Zayn. He was an alpha and he had instincts. His instincts were telling him that one of his mates was in a distressed state. The solution was to get him out of there and take him somewhere safer. The only safe place for Liam at the moment was home.

Immediately, Lilith turned her head to face him so quickly that Liam feared she might have twisted her neck or something. Instead of the disappointed look she had when watching Zayn, she had an almost desperate look in her face. A look as if she had realized her mistake and didn’t want to face the consequences.

“No,” she protested. “Don’t take him away from me. Not when I’ve found him again.”

Eric looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Come to think of it, everything Lilith had done made everyone wonder if she was already bonkers. “Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously. The hysterical tone of his voice made Liam wonder if he was going to erupt into flames of anger or fits of laughter. “You’ve already mistreated him. You made him do something he didn’t want to.”

Eric moved dangerously close to Lilith again as if he was going to start punching her in the face. He said through gritted teeth,” If it was something ridiculous, maybe it would have been accepted but this is something serious. You messed with his mind. You made a decision for him that he protested. You can tell that he didn’t want it by the way that he tried to resist.

“Even when he was starting to hurt, you didn’t stop because you thought that you could bend him to his will as you have with any of your other progenies. You are in no position to fucking act as Maker and decide what’s good for him at the moment. The minute you remember that he’s another being and treat him as such, maybe you can redeem yourself,” the blond vampire spoke, backing away from Lilith once he was done.

Lilith narrowed her green eyes at him. “And who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my progeny? What authority do you have over me?”

“Look, lady,” Pam closed the door behind her and walked closer to Eric and Lilith. “I don’t know who you are but based on what I gathered from the conversation you’re having with Eric and the looks of everyone in the room, I can say that you’ve somehow royally messed up and you need to face the fucking music.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, child,” Lilith hissed at Pam. “You’re barely a quarter of my age. I can squash you like a bug.” Pam gave her a leveled look.

“Bring it on, grandma,” she challenged. “Though I fear your stamina’s not up to par.”

Liam must have been living with Louis for far too long because he was half expecting someone to suddenly pipe up and say, “That’s what she said.” Honestly, this was a serious situation and jokes would not help right now. The alpha looked over to Louis and Zayn just in time to see Zayn whisper something to Louis, his slim body shaking slightly.

“Are you sure?” Liam heard Louis ask him. Zayn gave a nod before he sniffled into a tissue Louis had given him. The tissue was stained slightly red, due to his nosebleed a few moments ago.

Liam watched as Louis turned to all of them, warily watching the two women who were close to initiating a catfight and waiting for a moment to budge in. Before Pam and Lilith could throw more insults at one another, Louis piped up, “Uh, Zaynie here said that he wants to go home so I guess we’ll go.”

That was Liam’s cue to step forward and gather Zayn into his arms, the Halfling clinging onto him like a vice. Lilith was snapped out of her little glaring competition with Pam. “What? No, no, no, no,” she protested, her arms spread in front of her. She moved closer to Liam and Zayn, arms outstretched to probably pull Zayn out of Liam’s embrace.

The alpha growled at her and moved Zayn out of her reach, his wolf side deciding that she was more of a threat than an ally at the moment. His actions caused Lilith to get defensive and she hissed in his face, her fangs dropping. Zayn whimpered.

“Let it go, Lilith,” Godric spoke up. Liam, and probably half of the other supernaturals in the room, had almost forgotten that he was there. “It is Zayn’s decision. After that stunt you pulled, I think you’ll need to earn his trust and also realize that he will make his own decisions due to the fact that he’s never had his real Maker with him and never had to listen to a Maker’s command before.”

Lilith looked terribly hesitant. She probably was torn between fighting for what she wanted and respecting Zayn’s wishes. Liam didn’t want to linger around any longer so he just started walking out of the room. He was a few feet from the backdoor and hadn’t heard anyone scream bloody murder so it seemed that Lilith was letting them be.

Liam waited with Niall and Louis while Harry went to get their car. Once they were all strapped in, Harry drove them home. Zayn clung to Liam during the entire ride home. He didn’t speak or make a sound, just kept shaking and shivering as if he was cold.

Once they got home, they took Zayn to their shared bedroom and changed him into a big sweater (probably Liam’s or Harry’s) and comfy sweats. Liam set him on the bed, bundling him up with blankets to help with his shivering spasms. Harry left them, said something about making soup. Meanwhile, Louis cuddled up to Zayn, letting himself be Zayn’s personal heater.

One of the perks of Louis being a Demon was that he could change his body temperature to drastically cold or burning hot. He said that it had something to do with Hell being all kinds of temperature based on your sins etc. Harry came back with soup, the aroma enticing everyone. The wizard noticed Niall’s hungry stare at the bowl he was holding.

“There’s more in the kitchen,” Harry said. Niall looked at him gratefully. The spirit was about to dash of but he stopped, hesitant about abandoning Zayn for his stomach. Liam noticed his conflict. After a look at his two other boyfriends tending to Zayn, he grabbed Niall’s hand.

“C’mon,” he said, pulling him downstairs. Liam needed to calm his wolf and Niall needed to eat.

Apparently, Haz had gone overboard with his motherhen-ing because he had made one big pot of soup. Niall looked overjoyed, the spirit had a bottomless appetite. While Niall was grabbing a bowl of soup for himself, Liam busied himself with grabbing a bottle of water. Beer didn’t seem to be the right choice at the moment so water was the way to go.

The werewolf sat at the table, uncapping the bottle and taking in large gulps of water. Niall sat across him, eating his soup. “So, thoughts on Lilith?” Niall asked between spoonfuls of soup. Liam ran a hand over his face.

“She seemed cool at first but after tonight, I have mixed feelings,” Liam answered. “Like she’s technically Zayn’s mother so I want to be in her good graces but what kind of mother does that to their child?”

The alpha let out a harsh sigh, “What I didn’t expect was for Zayn to try and resist her. Who knows what would have happened if Eric hadn’t intervened.”

“Probably worse than a nosebleed. Maybe his head would have exploded or something,” Niall said before noticing the unimpressed look Liam was giving him. He gave the werewolf a sheepish smile. “Sorry, not helping.”

Their conversation paused when Harry entered the kitchen. The wizard put the empty bowl he was holding in the sink before proceeding to wash it.

“How is he?” Liam asked. Harry spared him a glance over his shoulder before turning back to dishwashing.

“He’s okay. He fell asleep after finishing the soup. Lou said that he would keep him company but I have a feeling that Lou also fell asleep,” the wizard said, sounding slightly amused. The wizard left the clean bowl on the rack for it to dry. He turned around and leaned against the kitchen counter.

“What were you guys talking about?” Harry asked curiously.

“Lilith,” the werewolf and the spirit answered. Harry nodded his head, the look on his face saying that he should have expected that answer.

“What happens if Lilith wants to see Zayn again?” Niall asked. “We can’t keep Zayn cooped up in the house just so that he never sees Lilith again.”

“I think the bigger problem would be if Zayn wanted to see Lilith again,” Harry spoke up. “Do we deny him of that request? Is it our right to decide if he can see her again or not?”

“I feel like we should let him decide what he wants to do,” Liam said.

“But if he’s not in the right condition mentally, then what?” Harry asked. “You’ve seen how a child reacts to his maker. Zayn calmed down when Lilith was there. Maybe there’s a natural thing in vampires that seek comfort in their Makers. What if that natural thing influences his decisions, especially if we’re ever in a situation where she’s clearly bad for him to be around?”

Liam shrugged, “But he did try to resist her earlier so I guess that maybe his human side is making him think rationally and recognized that although she is his maker, she is still a stranger.”

Harry nodded, “That makes sense.” He didn’t necessarily agree with it but he didn’t want to be hypocritical and demand Zayn follow what he wanted like Lilith had done. He wanted to give Zayn his two cents on a matter and let Zayn make his own decision.

“Now what?” Niall asked. Harry pursed his lips.

“We wait for him to wake up and see what he wants to do.”

…

Zayn woke up the next day some time late in the afternoon. The boys didn’t want to wake him, choosing to let him wake up at his own time as he was probably exhausted from the events of the night before. The Halfling trudged downstairs, dragging one of the blankets with him. He followed the loud chatter to the kitchen where he saw his boyfriends eating together.

“Good afternoon, Zayn,” Harry said as Zayn sat with them. Zayn blinked at them lazily akin to a cat and yawned. Harry noted that Zayn looked completely adorable like that. The Halfling’s hair looked so soft and fluffy, the big sweater he wore was almost falling off one shoulder and exposing his collarbone.

“Hi,” Zayn said back, still trying to get the sleep out of his eyes. Harry placed a bowl of soup in front of Zayn. The half-vampire peeked at his other boyfriends’ plates. They had pieces of meat and mashed potatoes as well as a few roasted vegetables on their plate. It looked mouth-watering. Zayn pouted.

“Don’t get me wrong, your soup’s amazing, Haz,” Zayn started to say, still eyeing the other plates on the table. “But I’m just shaken from yesterday, not sick. I think I can stomach more solid food.”

Harry flushed. “Alright, I’ll get some meat for you,” the wizard got up from his seat and went to the stove to get a plate of their lunch for Zayn. Zayn watched as Harry slightly struggled with scooping the mashed potatoes onto the plate and almost giggled at the sight.

However, Niall’s hand was suddenly on his and Zayn’s attention was diverted to the blond spirit. He looked into Niall’s blue eyes that were filled with concern. “You feeling a bit better today?”

Zayn nodded, giving Niall a small smile to help him calm his worries. “Like I said to Haz, I’m just shaken, is all. I’ll be okay, Ni, promise.” Harry interrupted the conversation by suddenly appearing next to Zayn and setting the plate of food in front of the Halfling.

Once Harry sat down in his seat, they resumed eating lunch. Liam let Zayn take a few bites of his food before saying, “After we eat, we need to talk, Zayn.” His words caused Zayn to pause for a moment before he continued eating.

The Halfling wasn’t exactly keen on having a conversation with his boyfriends, particularly about what had happened last night. Even he hadn’t had time to figure out his thoughts from last night. In fact, if it was up to Zayn, he didn’t even want to think about it. Everything just felt so draining (pun unintended).

After lunch was over, they all moved to the living room. Zayn sat on one of the sofas, flanked by Liam and Harry on his left and right. Meanwhile, Niall and Louis sat on the floor. All of their attention was on Zayn. None of them spoke yet. The boys didn’t know which questions to ask Zayn, which questions to even start with. Zayn waited patiently for them to start talking.

“So, how do you feel about last night?” Liam asked, softly. The question was simple enough and not too pressuring. The werewolf just wanted to get a gist of what Zayn’s mental state was.

Zayn shifted in his seat. He focused on his hands rather than his boyfriends. “I felt that everything seemed surreal when I found out that Lilith was my maker. And I also felt very overwhelmed. I had a panic attack basically. When she calmed me down, I felt like I was in a different headspace. I felt like I was suddenly helpless and dependent, kind of like a baby. Like I relied on her for everything.”

The Halfling started frowning. “And then when she told me to choose between her and Eric, I felt really conflicted because Eric’s been there for me for so long. I recognized that the only bond I had with Lilith was because she was my Maker. And I also wanted you guys to be there because you guys keep me level-headed and calm.”

“What happened when you were trying to resist her command?” Louis asked. He watched as Zayn’s eyes glazed over, probably reliving the moments from last night.

“At first, there was this beeping, as if something was telling me that I was treading in dangerous waters. It was like an alarm bell going off and it kept getting louder and louder, the longer I didn’t agree with Lilith. After that, it spiraled downwards.

“I felt like I was on my deathbed. I felt suffocated. It was as if the only way to stay alive was to follow her command, a command that I didn’t want. I couldn’t breathe. My senses were messed with,” Zayn swallowed thickly, chest feeling heavy. “I thought I was going to fucking die.”

The boys could see that he was suddenly distressed. Him being distressed in turn made them feel distraught. They didn’t want him to have to go through everything again, even if they were curious to know what had gone through his head.

The boys were about to tell Zayn that he didn’t have to continue if he didn’t want to but the half-vampire put a hand up and said, “Give me a minute, please.” The Halfling was breathing heavily and he struggled to speak.

Harry started massaging Zayn’s back, trying to get him to calm down. “I don’t know if she would have retracted that command had Eric not intervened.” All of the emotions from last night suddenly hit him again at full force and Zayn gasped, gulping in air because he felt like he couldn’t breathe again.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Harry grabbed Zayn’s face. “You’re fine, you’re not there again. We’re past it. You’re safe.” Zayn slowly nodded.

“Okay,” he whispered. “Okay.” He said again more convincingly. “Sorry.”

Harry ran a hair through Zayn’s fluffy hair. “It’s not your fault, Zaynie.” His green eyes darted to the side and he noticed Louis’ raised eyebrows, probably asking how Harry suddenly knew the way to calm someone down especially after he failed to do so last night.

“I may have brushed up a bit on the things I’ve learned last night,” Harry answered Louis’ unspoken question. “I didn’t want yesterday to repeat again.”

All of his boyfriends gave Harry warm smiles. Zayn was the most affected by Harry’s admission. He felt truly loved and cared for. He felt so touched that Harry went that far to care for him. The wizard blushed under their fond gazes and waved a hand through the air, dismissing that conversation so that they would refocus on Zayn.

“If Lilith wanted to talk to you again, would you let her?” Harry asked, rubbing his thumb over Zayn’s hand. “We’re leaving that decision up to you, babe. If you don’t want to see her again, we’ll try to make that happen.”

The Halfling shrugged. “I felt kind of betrayed by the fact that she would put me in a near-death situation. I don’t really want to see her for a while. But, I also know that she has answers to questions I have in my head. I need the closure. I’ve waited for closure for so damn long.”

“Okay, we understand,” Niall said, nodding his head. “We’ll support you, yeah?”

“Can we do something else?” Zayn asked, almost whining. “I kinda feel exhausted all over again.”

“What do you wanna do, babe?” Liam asked, noting the energy drop in the room. He could sense that they were all trying to digest every information given to them and that task was tiring for the brain.

“Maybe watch movies and cuddle?” he asked hopefully. His boyfriends agreed and they all settled on the couch (basically a dog pile on the couch) to watch a movie on Netflix.

The boys fell asleep halfway through the movie. They slept soundly on the couch, comfortable with each other’s presence. It wasn’t until there was a knock on the door did Niall suddenly stir slightly awake. His eyes fluttered closed again after a few moments. The knocking became incessant, causing Niall to fully wake up.

The blond spirit got up from the couch and slowly walked to the door, shaking his head to get himself more awake and aware. The knocking got harsher and Niall felt slightly annoyed. Why was someone bothering them at the moment?

“Calm the fuck down,” the irish spirit said, slowly getting more and more irritated. “I’m getting it.” He roughly yanked the door open. Once he saw who was at the door, he became wide awake.

“Lilith?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope something was salvageable. The 'feelings' part of this chapter didn't really do it for me. I felt like it wasn't up to par. Regardless, I hope you somehow miraculously liked this chapter even though nothing really happened. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Are we gonna see some happy things or is everything gonna be going downhill? What is Lilith gonna do? Any comforting words for Zaynie?
> 
> Oh and I'm loving the support on my new omega!zayn story :)


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lilith spills the beans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, it has been a long time but I am here with a new chapter. I had updated my other story (Omega!Zayn check that out if you're interested) and now I felt inspired to write up a new chapter for this one. These past few days I had been in a negative headspace which caused my mind to draw blank when I even thought of writing something. But I'm progressing. I'm pushing myself to remember the positives and to remind myself why I started writing. Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I think we've been anticipating the backstory long enough. Excuse any mistakes, yeah?

The first thing Niall did after it registered in his head that Lilith was standing in front of him was he slammed the door shut in her face. He wasn’t thinking straight. To be honest, it was more of a reflexive reaction to her presence. He was in shock and he wasn’t exactly fond of her at the moment. Therefore, he accidentally did that.

However, the spirit knew that that was not a polite way to deal with the ‘mother’ of one of his boyfriends. The blond took in a few breaths and reopened the door. “Sorry about that,” he apologized, plastering a bright smile on his face. It was a little fake but he was trying to appear unperturbed by her presence. “Did you need anything?”

Lilith stood on their porch, looking like she blended right in with the darkness of the night. She was wearing a black long-sleeved dress. It was quite chilly out but Niall figured that since she was a vampire, she was probably unbothered by the weather. Lilith nodded at him, her green eyes shining bright like a cat’s. “Yes, I would like to see Zayn.”

“What for?” Niall asked, starting to feel slightly apprehensive. He made sure to keep his tone light and unfazed but his eyes showed his hesitation. His protective instincts had kicked in. Of course she would be here for Zayn. Was she here to perform one of her mind tricks on him again?

“I want to have the conversation with Zayn that I was supposed to have at Eric’s office. This time, I want to do it by his terms,” Lilith answered truthfully. Okay, Niall felt pleased by the answer. It seemed harmless enough but he would need to confer with his boyfriends.

“Hold on a sec,” he said to Lilith before he closed the door on her, gently this time. The spirit dashed into the living room and woke his boyfriends. Harry woke up first but he groggily snuggled up to Zayn and tried to sneak in a few more winks. His demon boyfriend was the next one to come back to the land of the living and actually stay awake.

“Nialler, what the fuck?” Louis complained, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with a scowl on his face. Everything felt too early—or late (when Louis peeked at the window)—for whatever Niall wanted. The demon sat up, not caught up in the human sandwich Zayn was in.

Speaking of the Halfling, Zayn was semi-conscious. He stared at Niall through half-lidded eyes but did not make any move to speak or get up from his position between Liam and Harry. The only sign of Liam being awake was he stirred a bit and opened his eyes to take in his surroundings before falling back asleep after detecting that no threat was present in the house.

“Wake up,” Niall urged them, trying to get Harry, Zayn and Liam more awake. He prodded at Liam’s cheek and tried to tickle Harry awake. Meanwhile, Louis was glaring daggers at him and thinking that he might ask Hades to open up a part of Hell reserved for those who bothered people who were sleeping. That should never go unpunished.

“Would you care to tell us why?” Louis asked, annoyed when Niall ignored him. He might sound tired but his eyes were open wide and lively. Liam swatted at Niall’s hand that kept patting him on the cheek and Harry made sounds of discomfort, shifting in his sleep.

“Lilith is here!” Niall said, causing the werewolf and the wizard to become alert almost immediately. Harry suddenly sat up straighter, almost squishing Zayn against Liam in the process. The Halfling whined slightly, protesting the rough treatment.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Harry asked, wiping the bit of drool at the corner of his mouth. Niall rolled his eyes, eager to say otherwise but he decided to let that go even if all he wanted to do was shout at them and say that he had been trying to tell them that had they woken up sooner.

Liam pulled Zayn closer against him (as if that was possible. Any closer and Zayn might merge with Liam and become one.). A serious look had settled on his face. “What does she want?” he asked, his hands gripping Zayn’s sweater tightly.

“Lilith wants to talk to Zayn,” Niall answered his question. “This time, she wants to do it on Zayn’s terms.” Liam frowned instantly, feeling uneasy with the request. He didn’t want Zayn to see Lilith so soon. Not when he was still calming down from what had recently happened. However, the decision wasn’t up to him.

“I want to see her,” came Zayn’s mumbled response from his place against Liam’s chest. His face was half-squished against the werewolf’s body and his hands were pinned between them. Liam eased up a bit. “Please? I think it’ll be good for me?” The Halfling looked up at Liam, almost pleadingly. His big brown eyes were staring into Liam’s, imploringly.

“Are you sure?” Louis asked, pushing Harry slightly to the side so he could see Zayn. The half-vampire nodded, appearing to have made up his mind.

“Super sure?” Harry questioned this time, pushing Louis back to his part of the sofa. The demon grunted at the sudden action.

“I am,” Zayn answered earnestly. “I can handle this, I think.” Harry pursed his lips, his eyes narrowed slightly as he searched Zayn’s face for any sign of dubiousness that he could use as a reason to shove Zayn into a closet and not let him out to see Lilith.

Zayn saw Harry’s eyes flicker up to Liam’s and they seemed to have some kind of telepathic conversation with each other. Then, Harry turned to Louis and Niall. Zayn tried to guess what they were discussing by watching their faces closely but he couldn’t gather anything. When the curly-haired wizard turned back to him, the Halfling was surprised to see a look of resignation on his face.

“Okay,” Harry said reluctantly. Zayn gave him a small smile in response.

“I’ll tell her to come in,” Niall said, sauntering out of the room. The other four heard the door being opened again and the sound of Niall’s loud boisterous voice as he gave Lilith permission to enter their home. The blond Irish spirit escorted Lilith to the living room.

Upon entering, Lilith’s face brightened when she spotted Zayn. Her hands twitched as if she was refraining herself from lunging forward and wrapping up Zayn in a hug. Zayn gave her a tentative smile.

Liam had shifted in his seat, sitting up properly but still making sure that Zayn was plastered to his side. Harry closed the gap and moved closer to them, further squishing Zayn into Liam’s side. Louis just did the same thing as his other boyfriends had done. Zayn didn’t complain, he knew why they were acting like this and decided to let it go even if he felt like his left hipbone was finally meeting his right and his lungs were practically becoming one.

“Please, have a seat,” Niall said, setting down a chair behind Lilith. The vampire smiled at him thankfully and took a seat. It seemed that he is playing the role of host perfectly. The spirit settled on the edge of the sofa, next to Louis.

“Boys,” Lilith greeted them. They nodded back at her.

“Lilith,” they greeted her in unison. It was kind of freaky, in Zayn’s opinion. They were all giving her blank faces. Each one of them appeared to be on guard and Zayn felt like the way they were acting was kind of ridiculous. None of them spoke after that. His boyfriends were too busy staring at Lilith and Lilith stared back, meeting each of their gazes evenly.

Zayn cleared his throat and that broke the staring contest. “What did you want to talk about?” Zayn asked politely.

“I thought that I could come clean and tell you my side of the story,” Lilith said, her hands clasped together in her lap. She gave Zayn a rueful smile. “You deserve it after all of the things you’ve been through.” Zayn smiled back, a small and hesitant curl of his lips.

“Okay, continue,” Harry spoke up, spoiling the short mother-son moment. Whether it was intentional or not, Zayn didn’t know. When the other boys peered at him, Harry had a completely innocent look on his face. When he saw them all looking at him, he merely widened his eyes and shrugged. “We don’t have all night.”

Keeping that in mind, Lilith nodded, “All right.” She shifted in her seat slightly and then sighed.

“I don’t know where to start—“

“At the beginning would be nice,” Louis interrupted, sarcastically. When Zayn frowned at him, he just raised his hands in a surrendering motion. “What?” he asked, feigning innocence like Harry had done a few moments ago. “I was just giving her a suggestion.”

The Halfling narrowed his eyes at Louis before he turned back to Lilith. Lilith looked slightly startled and Zayn did too. He understood that his boyfriends were protective of him but they were giving Lilith a hard time. The longer the time she had to take in order to explain her side of the story to Zayn, the longer she would have to stay in their house. Zayn didn’t think that the boys had thought of that.

“Ignore him,” Zayn said, sounding apologetic. Although Lilith had somewhat wronged Zayn, the Halfling noted that she was a guest and should be treated as such. Moreover, Lilith was Zayn’s Maker so Zayn was going to see her more often in the future whether he liked it or not. He was interested in befriending her and maybe he could convince himself that her previous actions were a one time thing.

“No, no, he’s right,” Lilith conceded, looking slightly dejected. “I should start from the beginning.” The vampire bit her lips and averted her eyes to the side, gathering her thoughts before she started her story telling.

“A few decades ago, I angered a witch,” Lilith paused for a second, running her hands through her hair in frustration. “I was young at the time—well, younger than I am now— and I was very reckless. I knew not to mess with her coven yet I still seduced her son, I had sex with him and I drained him once I was done with him.

“She found his body and I was still there at the scene. When she demanded compensation for his life, I laughed in her face,” Lilith let out a humorless laugh, sounding so depressingly self-deprecating that Zayn felt the urge to go and comfort her. “I was a stupid vampire and I forgot that witches had a lot of spells up their sleeves. She got enraged at my actions and she cursed me, saying that I’ll regret what I have done.”

The vampire sniffed, “I didn’t know what she meant by that. So I went home back to my clan. I slept in the day. At night, I woke up and I heard a baby’s cries. I was so shocked to see a baby right next to me. My whole clan was shocked. I didn’t know where the baby came from and then I remembered the curse the witch had placed upon me.”

Lilith looked Zayn in the eyes and leaned forward, grabbing his hand that was nearest to her. It was a surprise that Liam didn’t bite her hand off. “The witch cursed me to have a son, to have you.”

Zayn frowned, tilting his head to the side in confusion. “What’s so bad about having me? What kind of curse is that?”

Lilith exhaled slowly, “You caused quite an uproar with my clan. Since you were conceived through magic, some of the vampires wanted to kill you. They said you were a bad omen.”

Zayn looked away from her at that revelation, feeling sad. It was quite a downer to find out that ever since you were born, people had already felt like you were an abomination. Lilith tightened her grip on his hand.

“I didn’t let them do that,” she told him, looking intently into his eyes. “Sure, your presence was very sudden but as soon as I saw your eyes, your beautiful sparkling haze-coloured eyes, I couldn’t let them kill you. You looked so innocent. You were a baby. What kind of bad omen could you be?”

Lilith rubbed her thumb on the back of Zayn’s hand. Her hand was colder than his but her touch wasn’t unwelcomed. “Half of my clan moved out that day. They wanted to get away from you. The ones that stayed helped me look after you. A day after that, we found out that something was different with you.

“You started to heat up. We didn’t want you to start overheating and the only solution was sticking you in a bath with cold water. One of the older Originals said that you were not fully vampire. You had another side that was empty of an identity.” Zayn heard one of his boyfriends gasp but he couldn’t pinpoint who because he was so focused on Lilith’s story.

The vampire’s eyebrows furrowed as she reiterated the confusion she had felt at that time. “I didn’t know what that meant and I didn’t know what to do. So I decided to tackle everything one at a time. I found out that sticking you in something cold not only stopped you overheating but it also stopped you from growing. It kind of stopped you from moving and being ‘alive’ but after we got you out of the cold, you would be moving like normal.

“So we kept you frozen. And a few days after that, one of the old coven members came and said that their sources had informed them that the baby was some sort of an abomination.” Lilith frowned suddenly.

“They were so sure that you had come from hell and would bring hell upon the world so they were so adamant on killing you. The older Originals told me to run away and take you with me if I wanted you safe. And I did that. I ran away and kept you frozen so that you never grew.”

The vampire let go of Zayn’s hand and got up from her seat. She started to pace the room. “I forgot about my responsibilities to you after that. I forgot that I was basically dragging you everywhere. Vampires were after us, I went back to luring victims and was a lone vampire. I dealt with everything like a mess. Until I met your father.”

Lilith had a thoughtful expression on his face. “He was a human that had managed to capture my heart. He was so kind. But I knew that I couldn’t stay with him.” She ran a hand over her face, sighing harshly.

“He had to know what I was and I told him. I told him my problems and he didn’t judge me. He even offered to help care for you. So I left you with him and promised to come back when everything was safer. I kept an eye on you for the first few months that I had left you with him. I noticed that your ‘empty side’ had adapted and became human. You seemed fine under his care so I went back to find my coven.”

“You let him stay with a stranger?” Liam asked, sounding incredulous. What kind of logic did that woman have?

“He seemed pretty trustworthy, okay?” Lilith shot back at him. She stared at Liam, eyes filled with fury and voice laced with desperation.“What other choice did you have if you had been in my shoes; a female Original running away from ex-members of her coven because they wanted to kill her baby? It was the only thing I could do at the time. I promised him that I would be back.”

The vampire stopped pacing and her shoulders slumped suddenly. Lilith stared at a spot on the wall, a sad look overtaking the previously animated expression on her face. “But when I came back, he had died and Zaynie was gone.” The vampire turned to Zayn.

“How did he die?” she asked, hurriedly sitting back down and moving her chair closer to the sofa, closer to Zayn. “How did your father die, Zayn?”

Zayn frowned, sensing utter sorrow from her end of their bond. “I don’t know. I woke up one night and found him in the backyard. He had been drained. The townspeople thought I did it. But I didn’t. I would have known if I did.“

Lilith blinked her green eyes rapidly and gritted her teeth to hold back her tears. Red liquid started leaking from her eyes and Zayn knew that she was crying. The vampire started wiping her tears away and Zayn looked around to see if they had a box of tissues nearby. Niall seemed to know what he wanted and passed a tissue box to Lilith, looking quite queasy himself at the sight of blood.

The Original reached for the tissues and wiped her tears, getting bloodstains on her fingertips. “I really wanted to see him one last time,” she said tearfully. “I wanted to see him waiting for me with his arms wide open. And I wanted to see my son all grown up standing next to him.”

The vampire laughed suddenly, her laughter sounding cold and forced. “I guess I should thank Eric, huh?” she asked rhetorically. She sniffled and wiped her nose. “He took good care of you while I went all around the world trying to find you and praying that they hadn’t got to you first.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Niall asked.

“The ex-members of my old coven. When I came back, I told them that I had killed Zayn but some of them didn’t believe me. They posed a threat to me so I explained my situation to the ones that I truly trusted and we bolted a few months after. I spent my time running away and after I was sure they were off of my trail, I started to retrace my steps back to Zayn.

“Of course I had encountered some of them at vampire gatherings but as of recent, I haven’t seen most of them. Rumour has it that most of them are dead and I’ve heard my sources say that the oldest ones are truly dead but you never know. Stories can be passed down from one generation to the next.”

“So there really is someone after Zayn?” Louis asked, sounding worried.

Lilith nodded. “After you guys went home, I told Eric about this because I figured that the person who killed the witch and went through Zayn’s files could possibly be an ex- member of my coven. Obviously, I didn’t tell him the whole story, just the parts that were of importance. He said he’ll look into this.”

“Thank you,” Zayn said. He reached out and took Lilith’s hands into his own. “Thank you for believing that I deserved closure and for trying to protect me.”

Lilith held his cheeks gently. “Believe me, baby, I wanted so badly to protect you. I had promised myself that I was going to be a good mother to you once I found you again. I intend to keep that promise.” She rubbed the area under his eyes and pushed his hair back, memorizing every inch of his face.

“You’ve grown so much and I wasn’t there to see it. I wasn’t there to protect you. But I’m here now and I vow to never let anything harm you as long as I’m still on Earth.”

Zayn nodded. “Okay,” he said softly. “I trust you.” Lilith placed a kiss on his forehead.

“This moment is sweet and all but we still haven’t forgotten what you’ve done to Zayn,” Liam interrupted from his spot beside Zayn. He had a guarded look in his eyes.

Louis nodded. “Yes. We’re still keeping an eye on you.” He did the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture to Lilith and Zayn almost laughed at his ridiculousness.

“And what better way to keep an eye on you than to have you join us for a late dinner,” Harry said, giving her a dimpled smile. Louis groaned.

“You’re already giving in?”

Harry shrugged, getting up and heading to the kitchen. “I’m a sucker for moments like these.”

“And I’m a sucker for food,” Niall said, trailing after Harry. Liam sighed, shaking his head slightly.

“Okay but we’re still keeping an eye on you,” he said, trying to sound intimidating but almost breaking that façade at Zayn’s cheeky smile.

“Shouldn’t she be doing that to you?” the Halfling asked. “After all, you’re my boyfriends and she’s my mother.”

Lilith seemed to preen after hearing Zayn’s admission. “It’s all right, Zayn. I understand their hesitation. It reminds me that I have a lot of work to do to mend our bond and earn your trust and theirs.”

“Okay, now that is a mindset I approve of,” Louis said. He got up and held out a hand to Lilith. “To the kitchen, shall we?” Lilith took his hand and he led her to the kitchen.

“You okay?” Liam asked Zayn. The Halfling looked up at him and smiled softly.

“Yeah, I feel all right. And it feels right, having my boyfriends and my mother close by.”

“Good,” Liam kissed him on the side of his head. “I’m glad.” They both stood up and joined the others in the kitchen where Harry had decided to pretend to be Italian and entertained them with his horrible attempt at the accent as he cooked up an Italian dish.

Sitting at the table, Zayn watched on, feeling content. He would feel even more content had Eric, Pam and Godric been with them but this moment felt pretty good too. His boyfriends’ presence was comforting to him and he was slowly getting accustomed to Lilith’s company.

Zayn felt peaceful and happy. He felt safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww Zaynie, you ain't gonna feel safe much longer. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Zaynie got his closure. The other boys are slowly getting okay with Lilith's presence and all that. I'll have to remember to focus on that more in the next chapter. For now, this is a good start, yeah?
> 
> What do you think will happen? Comment below. If you wanna yell at me on Tumblr, feel free to do so.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, Louis.  
> Oh no, Zayn!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a filler chapter. After that last one, I just felt like I need to figure out everything more. I'm not particularly fond of this chapter... Well, I'm not fond of anything I do, to be exact. Anyway, I hope you excuse any mistakes and enjoy the chapter :)

Louis woke up some time around 10 in the morning, limbs intertwined with his other boyfriends and his head feeling slightly drowsy. Last night, they had gone to sleep rather late, entertaining Lilith and getting to know Zayn’s Maker a little more. The Original shared stories of her travels, most of them anecdotes that had them all laughing. The demon had to admit that if the past events were overlooked, it would be hard not to like Lilith. However, he was still slightly wary of her.

Well, someone in the fivesome had to be. Zayn appeared to be a goner, already trusting Lilith all over again and the demon couldn’t blame him. The bond between a Maker and their progeny was a very complicated and intricate thing. He just hoped that Zayn would continue to have common sense when making decisions regarding Lilith.

Liam appeared cold at first. He was slightly formal with Zayn’s Maker, being very polite and giving curt responses. Nevertheless, Louis could see that he still made an effort to be kinder to her because that was just how Liam was, a very nice puppy. Niall was very friendly towards Lilith. They shared jokes and tales of Irish folklore. Lilith probably won him over too.

Harry was a bit like Liam. The only difference was from the start, he would treat you more than an acquaintance but less than a close friend. He will shower you with kindness but once you overstep a boundary, his walls will go up. Speaking of the curly-haired one, Louis noticed that he wasn’t in bed.

Zayn and Liam were cuddled up together, the Halfling was tucked under Liam’s chin while the werewolf had wrapped his arms around him. It was a cute sight. Niall was curled up on Louis’ side, snoring loudly and there was a bit of drool on his face. The demon decided to go and find Harry.

It wasn’t uncommon for the wizard to be up before his boyfriends. Normally, he would be in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for them. That was where Louis went first. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there. Breakfast was already served on the table but the curly-haired one wasn’t there waiting for them as usual. The demon scratched his head in confusion. Where could Harry be?

The feathery-haired lad wandered around their house, randomly checking the rooms to see if Harry was there. He hit the jackpot when he spotted movement in their library. The library wasn’t a massive one. It was just a room where they kept their books but usually, only Harry and Liam used the room. The demon pushed open the door slowly.

“Haz, what are you doing?” he asked upon seeing his boyfriend perched on the edge of the table. Unfortunately, he had failed to see that Harry was on the phone. The curly-haired wizard had looked up, slightly startled but he gestured for Louis to hold on a second while he finished up the call.

The demon walked in, closing the door softly behind him and approached his boyfriend.

“Yeah, mama,” Harry nodded, looking rather serious. His eyebrows were furrowed and his green eyes were slightly dazed as he focused on the call. “You’ll call if you find anything, yeah?” He smiled as he listened to the reply.” Thanks. Love you too. Bye.” The wizard ended the call and set his phone on the table. Then, he focused on Louis.

“What did you need, Loubear?” Harry asked, hands reaching out to pull Louis closer to him and settle him between his legs. Louis went with it. While sitting, Harry matched Louis’ eye level.

“Nothing. Was just wondering where you were,” Louis replied, smoothing his hands on Harry’s bigger ones that were around his waist. The demon eyed the phone. “What was that all about?”

Harry gave him a soft smile, tapping his fingers on Louis’ waist to a rhythm only he knew. “Nothing huge. Was just asking my mum if she knew of any old spells that resulted in a baby being born with half the DNA of the parent and the other half empty.”

Louis nodded understandingly. “Ah, I see. I didn’t think you would do research about this.” He raised an eyebrow at Harry. The wizard shrugged.

“Well, it is kind of up my alley. If anyone would know about this, it would probably be my mum or any of her friends. At least I hope they know about it,” Harry responded, sounding slightly shy. Louis smiled broadly at him.

“That’s very diligent of you; using your wizard connections to help Zayn out,” he praised the wizard who seemed to keen at the appraisal.

Harry blushed, “Well, he is my boyfriend and I want to help him get to the bottom of things. Speaking of boyfriends, are the others awake?”

Louis shook his head, “They’re all sound asleep. “ The demon smirked mischievously at Harry and the wizard knew what he was thinking.

“Let’s wake them up.”

…

“Oh, come on Zayn, it wasn’t that bad,” Louis cajoled at his boyfriend. The Halfling was sitting on their sofa, a mug cradled in his hands and a blanket wrapped securely around him. He had an irritated look on his face as he stared at the blank television screen in front of him, fuming silently. The frown on his face deepened as he fought off the urge to answer back to Louis.

“It was a harmless prank, honest,” the demon said further, trying to get the half-vampire to talk to him or at least, look at him. Every time the demon appeared in the Halfling’s point of view, Zayn would harrumph and turn his head to face elsewhere. The half-vampire shivered slightly, tugging his blanket up further and sipping the hot tea.

The reason why Zayn was pissed off at Louis was because of the wake-up call he had received this morning. All Zayn remembered was dreaming about happy things, things that filled him with warmth and joy. All of a sudden, this cold sensation attacked him and startled him out of dreamland. He woke up to the surprised yelps of Niall and Liam. He himself had let out a loud shriek as he scrambled to get away from whatever it was that was making him feel cold.

Zayn had been wet, completely soaked to the bone. His clothes felt freezing against his skin and stuck to his body uncomfortably. The sheets under him were also cold and wet. It didn’t help that the window appeared to have been open and let in breezes that made him shiver uncontrollably.

When he heard peals of laughter, the Halfling had turned his gaze away from the offending objects he saw on the bed (ice cubes, what the fuck?) and saw Louis guffawing at them. Harry was standing behind the demon with an apologetic look on his face. In Louis’ hands was an empty bucket. Two empty ice cube trays had been carelessly tossed onto the floor.

Zayn narrowed his eyes at Louis. He loved his sleep. He had been sleeping so peacefully, wrapped in Liam’s arms and sharing body heat. And Louis had disturbed him. Also, Zayn wasn’t exactly a morning person and none of his boyfriends had bothered to wake him up in the morning before, letting him wake up by himself. This wake-up call was totally _uncalled_ for.

The Halfling waited until Louis had finished his cackling before he mustered up his deadliest glare and hissed at the demon, dropping his fangs to show how angry he was. Once he had gotten his message across, Zayn dashed from the bed, grabbing spare clothes from the drawer. He wanted to change out of the drenched clothes as soon as possible.

After that, Louis spent the next few minutes trying to coax a reaction out of him. The Halfling had decided to ignore Louis and pretend he didn’t exist until his mood got better. Harry had been in on the plan and Zayn was slightly mad at him. However, the wizard was quick to offer peace offering in the form of hot tea and good food.  

Niall and Liam were outside, putting their mattress against the wall so that it would dry in the sun. They had been easy on Louis, forgiving him immediately because they had been the victims of his pranks thousands of times before. This prank was probably one of Louis’ favourite pranks. Although they didn’t put up much of a fuss, they enjoyed watching Louis grovel at Zayn’s feet.

The two and Harry sat at their kitchen table, sharing a bowl of popcorn Harry had made as they observed the scene. The demon had sat beside Zayn on the couch and was now poking him on the cheek.

“C’mon Zayn,” he poked Zayn’s cheekbone and then the hollow of his cheek. Zayn stared straight ahead, eyes blank and tired. The Halfling let out a frustrated sigh and sipped his tea.

In the kitchen, Niall nudged Liam’s hand to the side and grabbed a handful of popcorn. “How long until he breaks?” the blond spirit asked, munching loudly.

“Who?” Harry asked, voice low to keep Louis and Zayn from overhearing them. He didn’t want to anger Zayn further and risk Louis’ wrath as well. “Louis or Zayn?”

“Okay, how about this; who breaks first?” Niall rephrased. Harry and Liam shared a glance.

“My money’s on Lou,” Liam said in a matter-of-fact tone as he faced Niall again. He threw a piece of popcorn in the air and caught it in his mouth. He added, “He’ll crack first for sure.”

Harry shook his head, disagreeing with Liam. “No, Louis can hold off long enough,” the wizard argued. Niall snickered.

“We’re not talking about sex here, Haz,” he couldn’t help but say. The wizard flushed slightly.

“You know what I meant,” he said, trying to glare at Niall but failing because the amusement on Niall’s face was contagious. The blond spirit wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Harry with a smirk on his face. Liam looked like he was a second away from bursting into fits of laughter.

“ Why did you forgive Harry so easily?” The mention of Harry’s name dragged their attention back to the pair on the couch. The demon draped himself over Zayn’s back and pouted. “He was in on this too.”

The Halfling huffed and shoved Louis away, causing the demon to fall back against the couch. “He gave me tea and a blanket,” Zayn answered, making sure to aggressively pull the blanket around him. Louis gasped excitedly.

“You talked to me!” He beamed, a cocky grin resurfacing on his face. “You forgive me already.”

Zayn scowled. “I do not,” he grated out, downing the rest of his tea before setting the mug on the table at the side of the couch. Louis bounced slightly in his seat.

“You did it again!” he said, pretending to be overly astonished. The Halfling glowered at him.

“Did not,” he grumbled.

“Did too,” Louis had a smug look on his face.

“Did not!”

“Did too!” the demon egged the half-vampire on. Zayn narrowed his eyes at Louis and leaned his face closer to the demon’s.

“I do not forgive you yet,” he said lowly. Louis merely grinned back at the disgruntled look on Zayn’s face.

“Yes, you did,” he spoke confidently. Suddenly, Zayn gave Louis a chaste kiss on the lips before he leaned back and snuggled into his blanket. Now, the Halfling was the one who looked smug as the demon looked at him in shock. Louis snapped out of it soon enough, pulling on a part of the blanket to bring Zayn close to him again.

“Oh, no,” he said, annoyed. “You do not do that and then ignore me all over again.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out. Louis took advantage of that by kissing Zayn and sucking the Halfling’s tongue into his mouth, probing it with his own. One of the half-vampire’s hands let go of the blanket and gripped the nape of Louis’ neck to keep him there. The other had fisted his shirt.

Louis’ hands were on Zayn’s waist, gripping him tightly. At some point, one of his hands slipped under Zayn’s shirt and rubbed the skin of his tummy. The two proceeded to swap spit for a few more minutes before they broke away. They kept their foreheads together.

“I’ll forgive you on one condition,” Zayn said, his eyes closed and his breathing heavy. Louis planted another kiss on his lips.

“What?” he asked. He was willing to do anything. The Halfling opened his eyes.

“Cuddle with me,” he said sheepishly. Louis gave him a lopsided grin before leaning back to lie down on the couch, dragging Zayn along with him. The Halfling squirmed a bit on top of the demon, making himself comfortable before tucking his head under Louis’ chin and pulling the blanket on top of them.

In the kitchen, Niall let out a low whistle. He turned to his two companions who each looked surprised at the turn of events. “So, who won?”

…

Eric paced his office in Fangtasia. One of Zayn’s boyfriends (Liam, he vaguely remembered) was with him. The blond vampire had called him in to gather information about what had happened after they took Zayn home. He knew that Lilith had gone to their house last night. She had been that desperate to clear the air between her and Zayn.

The werewolf had reported almost everything to him. He didn’t tell Eric everything, keeping a few things confidential. Nevertheless, he had told Eric enough and supplied him with more details of the story Lilith had told him. Now, the vampire was frustrated.

One, he had to get to the bottom of this. He needed to track down that witch Lilith had angered. There was a slim chance that the witch was still alive though. If he had luck on his side, he would find her and get some answers. If not, he would have to hope that Doctor Ludwig performed a miracle of some sort.

Two, Eric had to track down whoever was after Zayn. After Lilith’s story, his biggest guess was that the suspect was a person from her old coven or maybe someone from generations after. The vampire had enlisted Godric’s help because if anyone had connections, it would be Godric. Eric’s Maker would try to trace Lilith’s lineage. Maybe he could help in narrowing down the list of suspected vampires.

There was also the possibility that the suspect could be someone on the list of enemies Eric had made. And that list was a long one. Eric planned on sending Pam out to ‘pay them a visit’. If anyone was capable enough of facing danger head-on, it would be his progeny.

Three, Eric had to learn to deal with Lilith’s existence. He had to accept the fact that she was there and she was a part of Zayn’s life now. What he still refused to accept was the bond between Zayn and Lilith. He didn’t like the bond, he didn’t think that she deserved to be in charge of Zayn. Even if Lilith managed to pull a miracle out of her ass and somehow solved all of his problems, Eric would still be in denial.

Godric had advised him to tone down the jealousy and let nature run its course. Eric would have done that but the whole situation wasn’t exactly natural. Zayn was born through magic, a curse placed on Lilith. That was unnatural. So by literal technicality, Eric didn’t have to listen to his Maker.

“So, what’s the plan?” Liam asked. Eric had to admit that the werewolf had a good head on his shoulders. He was a natural leader. The vampire sighed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to clear his head of his personal problems and focus on the threat against Zayn.

“The only thing we can do now is keep up what we’re doing,” the vampire told him, sounding slightly discouraged which was quite uncommon for Eric. “We don’t have any leads yet so the most we can do is wait until something pops up.”

“Harry has contacted his mother for assistance,” Liam said, volunteering a bit of information. “That’ll broaden our horizons.”

Eric nodded,” Okay, that’s good. Just make sure that Zayn’s name isn’t mentioned. Who knows if our suspect is hidden among the company of witches. We don’t need anyone compromising a plan that we barely have. There are a lot of things out of my control. I hate having to rely on luck, miracles and other impractical things.”

When Eric faced the werewolf, he noticed that the werewolf had an amused look on his face. The amusement morphed into fondness and understanding. The more Eric stared, the more he felt uncomfortable because he did not understand what those ‘soft’ emotions meant.

“You really care about him, huh?” Liam asked, his tone soft and hesitant as if he expected Eric to go one a rampage right after he uttered his question. The vampire didn’t know why but he couldn’t school his face into an emotionless one. He just felt like he should be truthful for once, let people know that he was feeling vulnerable at the moment. Oh how he hated that feeling.

Nevertheless, his shoulders slumped and Eric let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose so,” the vampire answered, avoiding the werewolf’s gaze. Never did he thought that he would have a heart-to-heart with a werewolf. “He’s different from Pam. Pam is basically a mirror of me. But Zayn, he isn’t like that. Reminds me a bit of my maker with how less violent he is.”

“That’s a nice thing to say,” Liam responded. The werewolf seemed unsure of how to reply to what the vampire had said. Should he encourage Eric more or should he get him out of it?

“And then Lilith comes along,” Eric huffed, irritated. “Barging into his life and trying to convince him that a bond through blood was stronger than a bond through choice. For vampires, that is kind of true but I like to think that Zayn is closer to me than Lilith. But who knows now, Lilith probably had him wrapped around her finger already.”

Liam hummed in agreement. “Maybe. But let’s have faith that he can make good choices.”

“I hope so,” Eric mused. “Hopefully he won’t do anything drastic and irrational.”

As if the universe was out to prove them wrong, the door to Eric’s office burst open. The vampire was about to snap at whoever the intruder was but stopped himself when he saw that it was Niall. The blond spirit was trying to catch his breath, his skin flushed red from running.

“What’s wrong?” Liam asked, immediately on alert. Niall tried to force words out of his mouth while simultaneously trying to calm himself.

“It’s—Zayn,” he managed to wheeze out, panting with exertion. “He’s—Bloodthirst!”

This was not good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wellllllllll hi. Did you like it? I put in a bit of Larry and a bit of Zouis. I hope it was enjoyable. Comment below and tell me what you thought of the chapter. What do you think will happen next?


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back after five or so months c: I hope you guys don't hate me for taking so long. I really wanted to update but inspiration run dry. Plus, I was busy with university which I fear I may not be doing so good at. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please forgive me for any mistakes, yeah?

Liam had seen Zayn in bloodthirst once before. He looked scary as hell but also had this dark seductive aura around him. However, the Zayn in bloodthirst in front of him right now did not look like that. He looked feral and hungry, eyes blown wide akin to a wild animal. He was struggling in the silver chains and snarling angrily.

As soon as Eric and Liam heard what Niall had said, the trio had ran to the basement-turned-dungeon a level down. They saw Harry and Louis, Harry had looked a little shaken up and Louis had struggled to keep his cool. Pam had been with them, locking Zayn up before bypassing the trio to get some blood for Zayn.

Sounds of hissing could be heard as Zayn kept moving, the silver burning his skin the entire time. It didn’t deter Zayn though. He kept watching them, growling and hissing under his breath. He looked like he was plotting their deaths as he glowered at them. The Halfling stared at them, unblinking before he suddenly fell quiet.

Liam saw from the corner of his eyes that Harry stepped closer, hand outstretched as if to touch Zayn. The Halfling stared at Harry’s hand, face void of the anger and resentment he had had in his eyes a few moments ago. He didn’t react when Harry was within a few feet of him. His hazel-coloured eyes looked up at Harry, some type of vulnerability suddenly present in them.

Maybe Zayn recognized that it was Harry, one of his boyfriends. Maybe, just maybe, their Zayn wasn’t completely lost in his bloodthirst. Maybe they could manage to reach him through it.

It was their luck that Eric had been with them as everything happened so fast after that. The last thing Liam saw was Harry being only one feet in front of Zayn, and the Halfling’s demeanor changed from being stoic back to being feral in a split second. He had leaned forward to bite Harry’s hand off, Liam had been sure of it. Luckily for Harry, Eric had reacted fast enough and pulled Harry away before Zayn could come into contact with him.

The Halfling let out a growl when his plan had been foiled by Eric. Speaking of Eric, he was clutching onto Harry who was breathing heavily as if he had ran a marathon. The witch blinked a couple of times, reveling in the fact that he didn’t become Zayn’s dinner.

“I didn’t think he would do that,” Harry spoke softly as Eric slowly let his hand go. He was clearly shocked and Liam could detect a slight sadness in his tone. His eyes were filled with despair as he stared at Zayn who was glaring in his and Eric’s direction. The witch flexed his hand slowly as he continued, “I thought I was getting through to him. I thought he was back.”

Eric sighed sadly. The vampire glanced in Zayn’s direction before he spoke, “He’s out of his mind right now. Unless he gets blood, the only Zayn we’re getting is a Zayn who has lost all rational thought and is behaving like a starved animal.”

“I just thought that love was stronger than all else,” Harry responded with a shrug. Oh, Harry, the hopeless romantic of the group.

“Not in this world,” Pam said with a snort as she descended down the stairs with a few bloodbags in her hands. “This isn’t a fairytale world, so it’s best if you remembered that.”

Pam tossed a bloodbag to Eric. The older vampire walked closer to Zayn and shoved the bloodbag near the Halfling’s head. Almost immediately, Zayn dropped his fangs and bit the bloodbag. The others in the room watched as Zayn surrendered to his primal urges and drained the bloodbag until it was empty. Pam passed Eric another one for Zayn to drink from.

On the last bag, commotion could be heard from upstairs. Before Eric or Pam could go and investigate, they heard the clacking of heels as someone came down to the basement. That someone was Lilith and she did not look very happy.

“What are you doing to him?” she screeched as she practically skipped the last couple of steps to reach them. She pushed the four Supernaturals aside, shoved Pam away and wretched the bloodbag out of Eric’s hands. She pushed the male vampire away and looked at them with fury in her eyes.

“Why are you keeping him chained up?” She started to ask, turning around to look at Zayn and the silver chains that bound his arms. She seemed to forget that silver could harm her as she grabbed the chains to break them before quickly recoiling. “Get it off him!” She ordered, looking very livid.

Eric stepped forward, “We can’t do that. He isn’t himself right now.” He felt like this was going to be one of those situations where he had to be the parent that explained to their child why they couldn’t have the toy.

Lilith looked at Eric as if he suddenly grew two heads. “What?” Liam saw that Zayn was regarding Lilith with interest. He lost the scary vibe he had and looked as if he was _tamed_. The Original turned back to Zayn, hands going to his face to stroke his cheeks softly. “He’s perfectly fine. “ Lilith glared at Eric.

As soon as Lilith’s eyes were off of him, Zayn bit down on her hand and started to suck her blood. Lilith yelped, not expecting that at all. She tried to pry Zayn’s mouth open and pull her hand away. Unfortunately, Zayn clamped down hard on her hand, determined not to let go. Unless Lilith wanted her hand ripped off, she would have to ask someone to help her.

“Get him off!”

Eric was frozen in his spot with his eyebrows raised. A part of Liam felt like he wasn’t going to help Lilith and wouldn’t have guilt after that. Pam looked at her Maker in confusion, probably wondering why he wasn’t doing anything. Louis was soothing a frightened Harry and Niall—

Wait, where was Niall?

“Thank you!” Lilith wailed in relief as she collapsed on the floor, clutching her bloody hand. Niall appeared from behind an unconscious Zayn, a metal rod in his hand and a guilty look on his face. Apparently he had knocked Zayn out again.

…

It was one hassle to explain everything to Lilith, but it was another hassle to calm her down once she started crying after knowing the truth. They had settled in Eric’s office, said male vampire was calling Doctor Ludwig and left the others to entertain Lilith. The four Supernaturals reiterated what Zayn had told them to Lilith and they were mighty unprepared for the bloody tears that came after their story.

“It’s all my fault,” Lilith sobbed, red trails running down her cheeks from her eyes. The hand that Zayn had bitten was already healing so the Original paid no mind to it and instead focused on bawling her eyes out on the couch.

Pam scrunched her nose up in disgust and passed a box of tissues to the Original who looked at her gratefully. She grabbed a tissue before proceeding to wipe up the blood and blow her nose. “If I hadn’t kept him frozen for all those years, he wouldn’t be like this. God, I wished I had thought twice before I angered the witch.”

Pam groaned. “Suck it up, honey. You made your bed, now lay in it,” the blonde said coldly before she sauntered off to Eric with the Original’s eyes trailing after her.

“They don’t like me that much, do they?” Lilith asked, staring at the two blonds who were deep in conversation. Liam shrugged, wondering if he should state the obvious or sugarcoat things.

The werewolf fiddled with his fingers. “Maybe, they’ll start warming up to—“

“No,” Louis interjected, stating the truth very bluntly. His other boyfriends glared at him for being insensitive but the demon just shrugged. “It is what it is.”

Before Harry could scold Louis, Eric joined the group. “Doctor Ludwig managed to get here on such short notice. She’s outside and I’m going to escort her to get some blood samples from Zayn.”

Lilith scowled at him, “You are not going to experiment on him!”

Eric rolled his eyes in exasperation. “No, we aren’t. We’re just going to get an update on his blood.” The tall vampire didn’t wait for Lilith’s reply because he immediately walked away after that with Pam in tow.

Lilith slumped her shoulders in defeat, “God, I hope they don’t hurt him.” Harry rubbed her back, soothingly.

“Nah, they won’t,” the witch said, in a calming tone.

The four Supernaturals and the Original waited in Eric’s office for Eric and Pam to come back with Doctor Ludwig. They were very anxious and filled with worry the whole time, thinking about all the worst possibilities that could come out of this entire situation. They were put out of their misery when the awaited trio came in.

Doctor Ludwig immediately situated herself at Eric’s desk, her kit on the table and a tube of red liquid (presumable Zayn’s blood) in her hands. Her face gave nothing away, blank and emotionless as she faced them. Once she saw that everyone was ready, she spoke.

“Zayn’s blood is very unique,” she said, glancing at the bottle in her hands. “Eric mentioned that he drunk some of Lilith’s blood. If Zayn was a normal vampire, nothing would happen, but Zayn’s a Halfling.”

“So something did happen,” Eric guessed, eyes staring intently at the bottle of Zayn’s blood. It looked the same as it did the last time. Doctor Ludwig nodded, her face slightly grim.

“Upon further inspection, it seems that there are more vampiric blood cells than there are human. I suspect that Lilith’s blood may have disrupted that balance,” the doctor explained to them.

“What would happen if I gave him more blood?” Lilith asked.

“My guess is that his blood will be more vampiric. If vampire blood is continued to be given to him, maybe all of his blood will consist of vampire blood,” Doctor Ludwig replied, looking over at Lilith. She frowned after that.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know what will happen if he becomes full vampire. He became half human due to adapting the identity of his father. If you forcefully made him a full vampire, I don’t know if it will mess with how his body works.”

The doctor’s gaze stayed on Lilith. “Eric told me about the curse the witch bestowed upon you. Some witches are tricky, and I do not believe that she would have made your curse this easy.”

“What do we do now?” Pam asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

“We keep looking for the witch,” Eric said. “If she’s still alive, we need to get the truth from her.” The tall vampire glared at Lilith, “And I want you to be kissing her feet, begging for forgiveness because you caused it.”

Lilith met Eric’s glare with an icy one of her own. Doctor Ludwig noticed the tension between the two and rolled her eyes. “Stop bickering and start working as a team,” she scolded them both. “Maybe you’ll make a progress by working as one big team than three separate small teams.”

“Great idea,” Liam said with a smile as the two feuding vampires narrowed their eyes at each other in distaste.

“While you do that, I’ll be running more tests on Zayn’s blood,” Doctor Ludwig said, gathering her things. ”Maybe there’s more changes that have occurred that I cannot detect by looking at it with the naked eye.”

…

When Zayn regained consciousness, he realized that he was in the middle of a bed, swamped with pillows and blankets around him. Once he took a few glances around, he recognized that he was home. The Halfling sat up, wincing slightly at the pain that made the back of his head throb. Nonetheless, he pushed the covers off of him and stood up.

Zayn swayed slightly when he stood, his vision swimming. He stabilized himself by grasping the edge of the bedside table. Once everything looked like it was staying still, he started to walk to the door. He needed to check up on his boyfriends and make sure that he didn’t mess anything up.

The Halfling felt slightly cold so he wrapped his arms around himself, hoping to warm himself up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working as well as having four other bodies to supply the heat for him.

The sound of laughter led Zayn through the hallways of the house and to the living room where he saw his boyfriends relaxing while watching a bit of footie on the television. They stopped laughing though once they realized he was with them, all of their attention suddenly on him. Zayn felt like an outsider that was intruding on their time together. It felt like the first time all over again.

“You all right?” Liam asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. They were all sitting on the couch; Louis next to Liam, followed by Niall and then, Harry. The couch was full, there didn’t seem to be space for him.

Zayn nodded, his lips pursed as he struggled to remember what had happened in his bloodthirst. He knew he had messed up and he tried to remember who was involved so that he could start groveling for forgiveness. Through his hazy mind, the Halfling remembered Harry coming near him while he was in chains and him almost biting the witch like he did with Lilith.

“Harry,” Zayn croaked, tears pricking the edge of his eyes. Said boyfriend looked up at him from his place on the couch, face somewhat neutral. The Halfling unwrapped one arm so that his hand could get Harry’s. As soon as his fingers touched Harry’s skin, the witch recoiled with a flinch. He suddenly had a dazed look on his face as if he was remembering something. He also looked afraid.

When he realized what he had done and snapped out of the trance he was in, Harry’s face changed from scared to worried. Zayn, on the other hand, felt like his heart broke into pieces when Harry moved away from his touch. The Halfling sniffled, “I’m sorry.”

The floodgates opened and tears streamed down Zayn’s face. “I didn’t mean to try and bite you,” he sobbed, wiping his eyes. Harry had a guilty look on his face now. “I didn’t know I was doing it, I didn’t know I was taking advantage of how concerned you would be with me and tried to use it to my benefit.”

Harry’s mouth opened as if he wanted to say something. His hands also reached out, as if to touch Zayn. But he didn’t. Instead, he grasped Niall’s hands, looking like he was searching for comfort. The spirit grasped Harry’s hands tightly in his, his expression guarded.

The Halfling knew that Niall was back to being wary of him. In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if all of them were cautious of him and acted awkwardly in his presence. He deserved it as it was all his fault. Harry pursed his lips, frowning as he thought of what he wanted to say.

“I don’t love you any less, Zayn,” Harry said, making Zayn’s heart blossom with hope. But it was crushed by his next words, “However, I do fear you more.”

The Halfling felt like he was going to burst into tears. How did he let this happen?

“I can’t touch you because I know I’ll get flashbacks of what had happened. It kind of traumatized me, Zayn. I was looking at you, thinking that you were back, that our Zayn was back, but then you tried to bite me like I was dinner,” Harry explained, looking uneasy. “If Eric hadn’t been there, I would have been dinner.”

Zayn’s bottom lip quivered as he held back his tears. “ I am so sorry, Haz.” He didn’t want Harry to fear him. He didn’t want Niall to look at him with distrust.

The witch got up from his seat, Niall following after. “I just need some time away from you, Zayn. I need to get accustomed to the fact that you aren’t out there to hurt me.” Harry walked away with Niall after he said that.

Zayn’s eyes watched after them, the Halfling feeling like his heart was being stomped on with every step they took. Liam cleared his throat, causing Zayn to look at him and Louis still in the room with him.

“Zayn, come here,” Liam said, his voice sounding neutral. “We have a few things to discuss. Liam and Louis moved so that there was room between them for Zayn to sit. The vampire felt like it would be better for him to sit at the end of the couch but one look from Louis had him situating himself in the space reserved for him.

The werewolf ran a hand down his face, his eyes tired. He let out a heavy sigh before speaking. “Zayn, you can’t do this again. You need to remember to have your daily blood intake.”

“Yeah,” Louis chimed in. “We can’t have these unpredictable moments where you suddenly become bloodthirsty and try to make smoothies out of us.”

Zayn nodded, accepting their words because they were right. “I admit that all of this was my fault. I shouldn’t have been so careless.”

“We would let you off the hook if this was something uncontrollable like Liam’s ruts,” Louis said softly. “But this can be controlled if you looked after yourself.”

Zayn nodded again, understanding where they were coming from. Liam had a serious look on his face after that. “You need to start looking after yourself, all right? Another incident like this and we’ll have no choice but to break up and distance ourselves from you.”

The Halfling gasped out loud at Liam’s words. “No!” he protested, face scrunched up in pain. It already hurt him that Harry and Niall were wary of him but for them to break up with him? That would break Zayn.

“We’ll have to do it if it comes to it, Zee,” Louis responded sadly. He pulled the Halfling into an embrace. “Promise me it won’t ever come to it.”

Zayn sniffed, relaxing in Louis’ embrace. “I promised,” he whispered loud enough for them to hear. He felt another pair of arms snake around him and he reveled in the hug that Liam was giving him.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t help but feel incomplete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm, thoughts? Good update or nah? I won't be mad if you feel like slapping me.


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